SAMANTHA NELL

Writer and Director Samantha Nell’s debut feature as a director, the edgy romcom DO YOUR WORST, premiered in the top ten on Netflix in 2023. She is currently developing her second feature MILES FROM NOWHERE. Samantha has an MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of Arts Asia in Singapore and has participated at several development labs including the Realness Screenwriter’s Residency, La Fabrique du Cinema du Monde, TIFF Talent Lab and Locarno Filmmaker’s Academy.

Samantha participated in the Cannes South Africa Film Factory in collaboration with Michael Wahrmann from Brazil and their short film THE BEAST premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight in the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a Brazilian Academy Award. Her most recent short film LOVE MOTEL, shot on location in South Korea, premiered at Durban International Film Festival in 2017.

Nell has produced short films on four continents and in 2012 her short film STIFF was selected for the Focus Features’ Africa First Program. It premiered at the 2014 Palm Springs International Shortsfest and won Best Short Film at the Africa International Film Festival in Nigeria.

A writer and director for hire, Samantha is developing many original projects across TV and film.

Represented by Aoife Lennon-Ritchie

Writer-director-producer Jenna exploded onto the South African film scene with her debut LOVE THE ONE YOU LOVE in 2014 in which she shot, edited, produced, wrote and directed. The film garnered five awards including Best SA Feature and Best Direction at Africa’s premiere film festival in Durban, Best feature Film at Jozi Film Festival, a Young Audience Award at Nantes Three Continents Festival, and Best First Feature Film by a Director at the African Movie Academy Awards, the following year. Body swap comedy HIGH FANTASY came next; entirely shot on an iPhone Jenna workshopped the film with the cast and played with contemporary South African themes of land expropriation, gender and race politics amongst the Born-Free generation. The film played at AFI and Berlin amongst others, where it was nominated for the Audience and Teddy awards respectively. In 2018 Jenna co-wrote RAFIKI – the controversial Kenyan gay love story with director Wanuri Kahiu that was banned on home turf. The film played widely at festivals, won several awards, and was nominated for the Cannes Un Certain Regard and Queer Palm awards at the 2018 festival. Jenna’s third feature, FLATLAND – a contemporary female western set in South Africa’s semi desert Karoo region – opened the 2019 Berlinale Panorama programme. A “picaresque road movie”, it was compared by Variety to the work of Andrea Arnold; with its “free, friction-based energy of the film’s performance style and the ragged lyricism …[and] its happy mixing of gravelly realist texture and romantic metaphor”. A portrait of femininity the film was produced by South African vet and Jenna’s long-time collaborator David Horler and distributed by The Match Factory. Fourth feature GOOD MADAM (MLUNGU WAM) produced by Causeway Films (THE BABADOOK) and distributed by Shudder, the pic premiered in the 2021 TIFF Platform to fabulous reviews. Jenna is developing across film and television with a teen horror comedy with Nim Geva of SA’s Quizzical Pictures.

Represented by David Kayser

Screenwriter and director Beer Adriaanse has written and directed two television series, EKSTRA MEDIUM and BUURTWAG, and been a head writer on the longest-running Afrikaans comedy series (5 seasons).

His genre work includes a multi-award winning sci-fi short film, SIKLUS, and his first feature film – the horror PARABLE (2020) – was nominated at several international film festivals and won best feature at the New Orleans Horror Film festival. Beer then wrote and directed the feature LAASTES (2021).

Next up, Beer will be directing his original feature film TABLE FOR TWO for Showmax.

Represented by Aoife Lennon-Ritchie

An alum of Wits and AFDA Fabian completed his first feature film script GOODNIGHT IRENE, which won him entry to the SPARK writer’s development program at the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF). In 2011 he was invited to the Script Writer’s Master’s Course at the NFVF, where he first started to develop WILD IS THE WIND which was first released on Netflix 28 October 2022. Before this Fabian worked as a professional script writer in television. As a staff writer, he pitched, developed and wrote hundreds of scripts for telenovelas and hour long drama series for some of the top production companies in Joburg. Shows included: ZONE 14, THE WILD, JACOB’S CROSS, INKABA, ZABALAZA and ISIBAYA for which he received a SAFTA nomination for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Scriptwriting’. Working in TV allowed him to hone his craft and gave him the experience needed to complete WILD IS THE WIND, which reached the top ten in 83 countries within its first week of release. Fabian is actively developing projects across film and television and is drawn to heightened genre.

Represented by David Kayser

Neiloe Whitehead cut her teeth in the production and development department of the National Film and Video Foundation.  Spearheading the documentary program at the foundation as a manager Neiloe’s duties included overseeing TV formats, and development and production content for both fiction and non-fiction. Neiloe has also worked with various funds, film festivals, television broadcasters both locally and internationally, was part of the Eurodoc International program in 2011 and was development exec at Fireworx Media and recently completed the 2022 Realness/Netflix lab for development execs. Neiloe has written on SIGNAL HIGH, SPLINTERED PIECES and three seasons of uBETTINA WETHU, the South African changed format of UGLY BETTY. She has several original TV and feature film projects at various stages of development and is co-owner of Black Seed Film Hub, a black female led production company.

Represented by Aoife Lennon-Ritchie and David Kayser