The Afda Graduation Festival 2024 – Celebrating 30 years of Afda

Afda is proud to announce that the annual Afda Graduation Festival showcasing work from our final year undergraduate and postgraduate degree students will kick off from 14 to 24 November 2024. The festival will be hosted by Afda in cinemas, theatres and studio venues in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Gqeberha.

This year’s festival will showcase well over 100 productions and project pitches from our Film School, School of Live Performance, School of Business and Innovation, and School of Creative Writing. These include live action short films, animation films, documentary films, telenovela pilots, theatre plays, live music performance shows, business innovation projects and creative writing projects.

“The annual Afda Graduation Festival is an important platform for our final year undergraduate and postgraduate students to showcase the final practical outcome of their qualification. This outcome is the culmination of their learning journey at Afda and finding their voice as young creatives. The content the Afda graduates create is culturally relevant and engaging content for their chosen target markets. Many meaningful industry collaborations and connections have resulted from our Graduation Festival in previous years, creating opportunities for Afda students as well as industry and media stakeholders alike,” says Afda CEO Teresa Passchier.

All the productions and projects at the festival are assessed by industry professionals, Afda learning staff members and most importantly, the public. The graduation production constitutes 50% of the complete student assessment for the year. This is a critical aspect of the Afda learning system, which encourages students to create market related and culturally relevant entertainment content.

Afda graduation productions have been hugely successful on the local and international film festival circuit. These include the film Elalini which won the Best Foreign Student Film Oscar in 2006, Kanye Kanye which won over 20 best short film awards worldwide, and was a finalist for the Oscars and Cannes in 2012. The films Die Windpomp and Hollywood in my Huis were Afda student films which were later developed into feature films. Afda student films have also won 10 Saftas in the Best Student Film category and 10 Simon Sabela Best Student Film awards.

The Afda students and staff body are looking forward to seeing you at the festival giving a round of applause from the edge of your seat.

Here are the Graduation Festival dates for each campus:

• Afda Johannesburg Graduation Festival 2024: 14 to 24 November
  
• Afda Cape Town Graduation Festival 2024: 14 to 23 November
  
• Afda Durban Graduation Festival 2024: 16 and 23 November
  
• Afda Gqeberha Graduation Festival 2024: 23 November