MEDIA RELEASE
IDFA Bertha Funded BUDDHA IN AFRICA
to show in Best of Fests line-up at International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam
Buddha in Africa, an award-winning South African documentary that follows the intimate story of a Malawian teenager growing up in a Chinese Buddhist orphanage in Africa, will be shown as part of the Best of the Fests programme at the prestigious International Documentary festival of Amsterdam in November.
The documentary, directed by first-time filmmaker, Nicole Schafer, has been many years in the making and received development, production and post-production support from the IDFA Bertha Fund.
“It is very meaningful to finally be showing the film at IDFA, a festival and fund that have believed in and supported this film since its inception,” says Schafer. “In 2011 the film was pitched at the Durban FilmMart in South Africa and received the “IDFA Most Promising Documentary Award”. This was very much the springboard that got the film off the ground in the first place. But being my first film, it took much longer than expected to raise all the finance and to follow the story, which is set in Malawi.”
The film had its World premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in April 2019, and has since shown at numerous festivals around the world where it has scooped several awards since including “Best Documentary” in the International Panorama ‘A Window onto the Future’, section of the Visioni dal Mondo International Documentary Festival in Milan (Italy), the Grand Prix award for the NHK Japan Prize for Educational Media, First Prize from the Youth jury for the Chicago Children’s Festival (USA) , and in South Africa an Audience Choice Award at Encounters Documentary Festival, “Best Documentary” at the Knysna Film Festival, and “Best South African Documentary” at the Durban International Film Festival, which has automatically qualified it for consideration for an Oscar nomination.
In the next two weeks the film will show at the AFRIFF festival in Nigeria, in Bristol, Oslo, the Festival Enfances dans le monde in Paris and the Verzio Human Rights Festival in Budapest.
Screenings at IDFA are:
Thurs 21st Nov (7pm) Rialto Bovenzaal
Fri 22nd Nov (14:45) Munt 13
Sun 24th Nov (13:00) Tuschinski 6
Tue 26th Nov (16:30) Munt 12
Fri 29th Nov (10:00) Brakke Grond Rode Zaal
Ticket Bookings:
https://www.idfa.nl/nl/film/dcb6d526-fbc2-465f-a0ba-1e0fbd4d8838/buddha-in-africa