François Verster is a South African film director and documentary maker. He has served on international film juries, published poetry and other writing, as well as taught film in South Africa and abroad. After completing an MA degree with distinction at the University of Cape Town, he worked with Barenholtz Productions in New York and as crew member on various independent features. Verster’s acclaimed debut as documentary director/producer was “Pavement Aristocrats: The Bergies of Cape Town.” In 1998, Verster formed Undercurrent Film & Television, a Cape Town-based company that aims to produce quality documentary programs for local as well as international markets. Verster’s movies have an “undercurrent” theme of social injustice and people picking up the pieces of their lives. He is not an “in and out” filmmaker but builds up a relationship with his protagonists, allowing his audience a very intimate and empathetic look into their hearts and homes. Despite severe budget constraints, Verster documents their lives, often over a number of years, and is involved with his protagonists past and well-being as much as with their future.

Jahmil X.T. Qubeka is one of South Africa’s most acclaimed and prolific filmmakers. Jahmil has been internationally and locally acknowledged for his directorial work and has premiered feature films in almost every significant festival across the globe. Jahmil has directed a plethora of documentaries, television dramas, commercials and feature films, he has
received the highest accolades for his work including a Peabody and a BAFTA and has persevered and triumphed in this testing industry despite coming of age in a turbulent period of this country’s past. Jahmil’s
sophomore feature film Of Good Report (2013) went on to garner multiple awards and plaudits. It had its World premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, and is also the first African film to be selected for official competition at the London BFI International Film Festival. The film went on to win a BAFTA, several SAFTAS and multiple African Movie Academy Awards. In 2016 Jahmil was selected alongside Walter Salles and Jia Zhangke to represent South Africa with his film Stillborn in a BRICS Anthology Collection which premiered in China (2017).

Jahmil’s 2018 film Sew the Winter to my Skin was selected for the exclusive Cannes L’Atelier program (2017), awarded the Berlinale World Cinema Fund, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was chosen to represent South Africa at the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Category. The film has won numerous awards including Best Film at the SAFTAs and Best Director at AFRIFF, with critics hailing it as a brave departure from the norm of South African cinema. Jahmil’s fourth film Knuckle City is set to premiere in 2019. Jahmil is co-owner and Creative Director of the award-winning company Yellowbone Entertainment and is a visionary of South African cinema, striving always to create authentic, ground-breaking work of the highest standards.