Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking

If you think the cost of training and skills development is high, take a moment to calculate the cost of skills shortages in a new democracy.

Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking (Big Fish) an independent nonprofit company based in South Africa objectives are to devise and implement cutting-edge training interventions to address skills shortages that hold the industry and youth back and to facilitate transformation by giving talented, previously disadvantaged youth training opportunities and employment in the film and TV industry.

A strong emphasis is placed on training female participants and Big Fish boasts a minimum 50/50 split between men and women.

The basis of filmmaking is storytelling. South Africa is rich in cultural diversity and natural heritage. Filmmaking can be used as a tool to record and preserve cultural history and natural wealth. Big Fish is an accredited, multi-award-winning film school providing world class training, focusing on skills development and finding and creating employment on completion. One of the cornerstones of Big Fish's training philosophy is to train young people to be socially relevant filmmakers and to use media to affect change. Big Fish students have won awards from prestigious international film festivals, their work has been shown on TV, they have beat students from all film schools in SA and they often successfully compete with 4^th year and masters students.