Talal Afifi

Talal Afifi (Arabic: طلال عفيفي; born 1976, in Hamburg, Germany) is a Sudanese film curator and producer. In 2013, he and other filmmakers founded the Sudan Film Factory and the following year, the Sudan Independent Film Festival. Afifi has been known for his role in promoting a new generation of Sudanese filmmakers since 2009. Since the start of the Sudanese Civil War in 2023, he has been continuing his participation at international film festivals and his support for emerging Sudanese filmmakers. Afifi became active in organizing workshops for future Sudanese filmmakers in 2009. At that time, there were no training and production facilities for filmmaking in Sudan, and most cinemas in the country had been neglected or closed down during the 30 years under the Islamist and military government of Omar al-Bashir. As part of the activities of the German cultural centre - Goethe-Institut - in Sudan, Afifi acted as coordinator of the institute's newly established film production and training project from 2009 to 2012. Having worked before as a cultural manager in Egypt and Sudan, he was managing workshops and the production of a number of short films by emerging Sudanese filmmakers. As director of the Sudan Film Factory (SFF), Afifi has represented current trends and productions of cinema in Sudan in numerous international forums. Apart from his activities for the promotion of cinema of Sudan, Afifi is also member of the executive committee of the Sudanese Writers Union. As there has been no specialised film school for training and no public funding for producing and presenting movies in Sudan, Afifi and other filmmakers founded the Sudan Film Factory in 2013 as an independent platform "to build the capacities of young Sudanese talents, produce films and expose Sudanese audiences to film making and cinema." Aided by the introduction of digital film equipment, numerous workshops, independent funding and growing recognition at international festivals, the 2010s saw several successful initiatives to re-establish film activities in Sudan. In 2014, Afifi and other filmmakers started the Sudan Independent Film Festival with annual editions of growing popularity. In less than 10 years since its beginnings, SFF trained more than 300 young men and women in various aspects of filmmaking.