Build the Audience - WiC aims at African cinema’s missing link, audiences

Deepixels launches WiC, a new audience infrastructure initiative for African screen content, at Durban FilmMart 2026

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA: African cinema has spent decades building filmmakers, films, festivals, markets and production capacity. Yet one fundamental challenge remains: how d­­o African films consistently find, grow and sustain paying African audiences?

At Durban FilmMart 2026 (9-12 October), Deepixels will introduce WiC, Watch in Community, an audience infrastructure initiative designed to help build new audience markets for African screen content.

The launch forms part of a broader proposition Deepixels is bringing to the industry, that every film is made for someone, and the challenge is to find them.

WiC is being developed in response to the persistent gap between the creation of African screen content and the systems required to connect that content with audiences over time.

“Across African film, we have invested substantially in creative development, production capacity and market access,” says Toni Monty, Co-Founder of Deepixels. “The missing discipline has been sustained audience development. WiC is designed to help address that gap by building practical routes between content, audiences, transactions and exhibition, so that more African stories can find viable markets over time.”

WiC connects digital discovery and ticket acquisition with physical exhibition, enabling screen content to reach audiences through a network of programmable venues and community-based cinema environments. The model brings together content discovery, programming, ticketing, exhibition and audience intelligence, creating a system through which audience relationships can be developed over time rather than ending with an individual screening or release.

“WiC is not simply a screening initiative or a streaming product,” says Ross Joughin, Co-Founder of Deepixels. “It is a connected technology system that brings content discovery, ticket acquisition, programming, venue operations, payments and audience intelligence into one operating environment. That integration is what enables the model to be tested, measured and refined as it grows.”

WiC does not position itself as a replacement for existing cinemas, festivals, broadcasters, streaming platforms or distributors. It is intended to create additional audience pathways and exhibition opportunities within the wider screen ecosystem.

WiC will be introduced to the film industry during a session at the 2026 Durban FilmMart titled: BUILD THE AUDIENCE: WiC takes aim at African cinema’s missing link: audiences, on Friday, 9 October 2026 from 11:15–12:00 at the Elangeni Hotel, Durban.

The session will explore the gap between content creation and sustained audience access, and introduce Deepixels’ approach to connecting content, communities, exhibition spaces, transactions and audience data within a new distribution and exhibition ecosystem.

The presentation will be led by Ross Joughin, with fellow Deepixels co-founders Toni Monty and Molise Ramaili and Content Partners Helen Kuun, Indigenous Film Distribution and Paul Robinson, NEFTI Films, joining the session for discussion and audience Q&A.

Delegates will also be able to experience WiC through a pop-up WiC Cinema, a dedicated screening venue presenting a curated programme of African screen content, and at the Deepixels / WiC exhibition stand, where they can engage with the platform and the wider audience-infrastructure model.

The WiC Cinema programme will bring together selected films submitted directly to WiC with titles presented in collaboration with WiC content partners Indigenous Film Distribution and NEFTI Films. NEFTI will contribute a curated short-film showcase, while Indigenous Film Distribution will bring selected titles from its catalogue into the programme, alongside a broader selection of African screen content. The full WiC Cinema programme, including screening times and participating titles, will be announced separately.

Building beyond Durban FilmMart

Durban FilmMart marks WiC’s public introduction and an important stage in its pilot development.

“WiC is also an industrial-development proposition,” says Molise Ramaili, Co-Founder of Deepixels. “It creates a framework through which local venues, operators, content owners and partners can participate in a new entertainment economy. The opportunity is to develop commercially viable community exhibition infrastructure, mobilise investment around it and build an enterprise model capable of expanding across markets.”

Following DFM, Deepixels plans to continue testing the model through a South African pilot rollout, working with content partners, audiences, venue operators and other industry stakeholders to refine its commercial, operational and technical model. The longer-term ambition is to build scalable audience infrastructure capable of connecting more African stories with audiences across multiple markets.

“Deepixels is therefore using the DFM launch not simply to introduce a product, but to invite the industry into a larger conversation: if we want sustainable African cinema, we have to build sustainable African audiences,” concludes Ramaili.

For more information about WiC go to www.wicstream.com.

For more information about the Durban FilmMart go to: https://durbanfilmmart.co.za/