Africa Key Focus of Emerging Cinema Markets Conference

Bookmark and Share

Fri, 10/18/2019 - 12:55 -- Nick Dager

Africa will be a key focus when the Emerging Cinema Markets Conference at the Grand Tarabya Hotel in Istanbul convenes November 19-21. The conference is run by Digital Cinema Solutions Events. Rob Arthur, founder and director of DCS Events and senior consultant at the Big Picture says, “Cinema in Africa is the new frontier. It is critically important that the industry stakeholders work as a team to best manage the growth opportunities cross the continent.”

Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent. It covers six percent of Earth's total surface area and twenty percent of its land area. With 1.3 billion people and a median age of 19.7 years), it accounts for 16.72 percent of the world's human population, but currently a nominal amount of the global box office. Africa is three times bigger and has four times more population than the United States but has just 1,414 screens compared to 40,759 in the United States.

The Big Picture has focused on twenty of the fifty-four African countries with significant prospects for growth and a current population of 961 million people. Of these, 421 million are English speaking; 193 million French; 188 million Arabic and 60 million Portuguese.

Moses Babatope, co-founder, group ED/MD FilmOne FilmHouse Cinemas and FilmOne Distribution and Production, Nigeria said, “"As a key player in one of the most dynamic emerging cinema markets, we always look forward to sharing our insights. The Nigerian (West African) market is growing rapidly from a very small base, so we believe that there is still huge potential for expansion and opportunities for filmmakers, exhibitors and other players across the industry. The Emerging Cinema Market conference gives us a great platform to articulate this potential to interested parties."

Full conference details and tickets are available at http://www.ecm19.com