SØRFOND PITCHING FORUM 2025
This year’s pitching forum will take place on Wednesday, November 12th, at Vega Scene, presenting five projects from the Philippines, Nigeria, Palestine, Colombia, and South Africa. Read about the event and the selected projects below.
- Date: November 12th, 2025
- Time: 12:00 - 16:00 (lunch starts at 12:00)
- Place: Salongen, Vega Scene
The event is free and includes lunch.
The projects have been selected from Ventana Sur, La Fabrique Cinéma, Locarno Open Doors, Durban FilmMart, and Asian Project Market. All projects this year are fiction films.
This year’s forum will have a slightly different form. After a brief presentation of each project, a dedicated table will be allocated for each project, and all attendees will rotate through the projects in groups, allowing them to discuss the projects face-to-face.
PROJECTS
Baptism of Silence (South Africa)
Directors: Kanya Viljoen & Emilie Badenhorst
Producer: Casey Diepeveen
A teenage girl, Isabel, and her younger brother Joshua, have always been each other’s refuge in a small, mining town of South Africa, but Isabel loses grip of the relationship, when Joshua endures a violent initiation at an all-boys’ high school and withdraws from her. With no one to turn to, Isabel is forced to find resilience within herself and to call Joshua to reflect on who he is becoming.
Read more about Baptism of Silence here.
Attending the Sørfond Pitching Forum: Producer Casey Diepeveen and director Kanya Viljoen
Heaven Help Us! (Philippines)
Director: Eve Baswel
Producers: John Torres & Jules Katanyag
Set against the 1981 Manila Film Center collapse, this reimagined drama follows construction workers racing to meet an impossible deadline — unaware that in twelve hours, tragedy will strike.
Read more about Heaven Help Us! here.
Attending the Sørfond Pitching Forum: Director Eve Baswel
Kachifo (Nigeria)
Director: Dika Ofoma
Producer: Blessing Uzzi
Bound by a blood oath from a lifetime ago, a reincarnated Igbo couple try to make sense of their affection while grappling with the challenges of a homosexual relationship in a society where their love is forbidden.
Attending the Sørfond Pitching Forum: Director Dika Ofoma and producer Blessing Uzzi
The Passport (Palestine)
Director: Rakan Mayasi
Producer: May Odeh
When a man from Gaza dies during a layover in Belgrade on his way to Canada, authorities face an impossible dilemma as politics and borders leave his body in limbo.
Read more about The Passport here.
Attending the Sørfond Pitching Forum: Producer May Odeh
Nombre y apellidos (Colombia)
Director: Duván Duque Vargas
Producers: Franco Lolli & Capucine Mahé
Seventeen-year-old Willy is shocked by his father’s sudden wealth — until he discovers it comes from Bogotá’s dangerous world of illegal loan sharking.
Read more about Nombre y apellidos here.
Attending the Sørfond Pitching Forum: Producer Franco Lolli