The South African Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said Sunday they will spend about 7.5 million U.S. dollars by March 2018 to support emerging black filmmakers in the country.

At the Emerging Black Filmmakers Workshop during the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), Director of Film Production at the DTI, Nelly Molokoane said the South Africa Emerging Black Filmmakers Incentive started in 2014 and has so far benefited 40 filmmakers.

"We are planning to host intense workshops in various provinces to assist filmmakers in accessing this support," said Molokoane.

Some producers have been struggling to access funding and the workshop was an information session. The Emerging Black Filmmakers Workshop was targeted at emerging film producers who want to access the incentives scheme and inform them on how to do it.

The workshop was hosted to assist those that needed training on the incentive scheme and guidelines, said Molokoane.

Rehad Desai, Director of the Marikana documentary, Miners Shot Down and a beneficiary of the incentive, said the funding will enable South African producers to compete on the continent and in the world in terms of quality production.

"We are seeing far more films being produced since the launch of the scheme and this means funding of projects happens in a lot short space of time and one can go into production quicker. This also means our production companies are becoming sustainable but the incentive can be made more accessible as some of the costs are regarded as non-qualifying and this affects the production qualification," he added.

DIFF is an annual event which is the oldest and largest film festivals in Southern Africa. The film festival started on July 13 and will end on July 23, 2017.

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