Durban International Film Festival

South Africa’s longest-running film festival, the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, is widely regarded as a leading film festival on the African continent and a vital event on the international film calendar.

The festival proactively promotes the development of the African film industry. It provides a strategic exhibition platform for local products alongside international films within a professionally implemented and reputable cultural experience. The DIFF2023 will be presented with a selection of films to be screened live in Durban coupled with an online festival that will be geo-blocked and limited to audiences in South Africa.

The 2023 DIFF curatorial theme, Disrupted Comforts / Unsettled Nuances, is a provocation for film-makers who craft their narratives as a bold, political and celebratory response or a call to action to rethink the position and conditions of contemporary societies. The 2023 DIFF programme intends to showcase the works of filmmakers who place their imaginations, voices, creativity and lenses at the centre of creating films that inspire, confront, engage, challenge, provoke or entertain audiences.

The DIFF’s 2023 curatorial theme, Disrupted Comforts / Unsettled Nuances, aims to celebrate excellence in film-making by unearthing and showcasing films that provide a memorable and enriching cinematic experience for audiences but with being courageous delve into untold narratives or new ways of retelling often-told narratives. The DIFF 2023 programming team will look out for innovative storytelling that can bridge the gap between audiences and film creators.

The programming committee and jury for DIFF comprise high-standing industry professionals who will select cinematic gems that will push the boundaries of the festival's theme, Disrupted Comforts / Unsettled Nuances. The programming team will also look for films that reach back while looking forward. Films that focus on strengthening the tapestry of indigenous and authentic African stories with a global view of sustainability and inclusion will be given strong consideration.

Films that speak to identity, migration, climate justice, social isolation, and hybrid integration and films that explore other ways in which our humanity is expanding, and our realities are being restructured will constitute an enriching DIFF 2023 festival experience. The DIFF 2023 invites submissions of Features, Documentaries, Shorts and Student Films.

The DIFF also contributes to expanding filmmaker networks by attracting local and international stakeholders and media and by creating public awareness about South African and African cinema and about global cinematic gems that will enrich South African audience experiences.

The DIFF’s Isiphethu Industry Development Programme promotes and highlights opportunities and possibilities for local film production, and it stimulates the growth of the local film industry. The programme consists of seminars and workshops that stimulate industry development whilst a community outreach programme reaches out to bring historically marginalised audiences into enjoying a festival experience.

The Isiphethu International Student Film Festival is open to filmmakers currently enrolled at any tertiary institution whose film celebrates innovation, wild imagination, courage, conviction and bravery to tell stories in new, exciting and innovative ways. The Isiphethu International Student Film Festival wants to celebrate tomorrow’s generation of legendary filmmakers today as they shape their careers and make their first real films.