Three Nigerian in-development projects, The Boy Who Spoke Static, Pülö: Bloodstream of the Kirike and Cause, Effect & Maybe Consequences?, received awards as the 17th Durban FilmMart ended in South Africa on Monday, October 12.
The 2026 edition, which began on October 9, concluded with 39 awards presented by 30 partners, with prizes valued at more than R2 million (about $120,000).
The Boy Who Spoke Static, from Nigeria’s Agbajowo Collective (The Legend Vagabond Queen of Lagos), left with three awards. The project received the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa’s Best Fiction prize, which comes with a R100,000 grant, and a $5,000 fiction award from the Red Sea Film Fund.
The project also received the Sørfond Award, giving the team flights, accommodation and accreditation to attend the Sørfond Pitching Forum and take part in a pitch course.
Christina Ifubaraboye’s documentary project Pülö: Bloodstream of the Kirike was one of two recipients of the Sunshine Cinema UCT Impact Development Award. The prize provides a bursary for the University of Cape Town’s 2027 Sunshine Cinema Film Impact Online Course, valued at R18,000, alongside a R7,500 grant towards the film’s first impact screening. It also comes with the option of joining Sunshine Cinema’s distribution catalogue.
Cheyi Okoaye’s Cause, Effect & Maybe Consequences? received the El Gouna Emerge Award. Okoaye will receive logistical support and accreditation to attend the 2026 El Gouna Film Festival. Libyan filmmaker Hussein Eddeb’s The Birth of Derna received the same award.
Cause, Effect & Maybe Consequences? entered DFM through Talents Durban, where it was selected in the fiction series category. The project follows Okoaye’s science-fiction comedy short of the same name, about a man who encounters different versions of himself across time.
Other prizes announced at DFM went to projects and filmmakers from across Africa and the Middle East.
Awarded with the most prizes at the event, Kenya’s The Ones With the Tempered Flowers (a big winner at Locarno Open Doors earlier in the year) received the Visions du Réel Award for participation in the festival’s 2027 market, while Sudanese project Four Months and Ten Days received a place in a TorinoFilmLab programme. Burkina Faso critic Neya Harouna received the Talents Press Award presented by the Cairo International Film Festival and FIPRESCI, covering logistics and accreditation for CIFF 2026.
The 2026 Durban FilmMart brought together 1,131 film professionals and filmmakers from 56 countries under the theme “Shifting Worlds: Turning Towards Ourselves.”
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