Alex Berger, producer of “The Bureau” and “La Maison,” Larry Kasanoff, behind the “Mortal Kombat” franchise, and Shuzo John Shiota, producer of “Transformers: Prime” will join a swathe of African and European voices set to debate the future of Africa’s film and TV at this week’s third SICA market at Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
Packing the conference are government decision makers, regulators, top network execs, fund heads, bank executives and talent from Ivory Coast, West Africa and the continent at large. African talent includes Burkino Faso writer-director Dani Kouyaté, a first prize winner at this year’s Fespaco fest for “Katanga, la danse des scorpions,” Nollywood actor-director Zack Orji (“Légitime Defence”) and Landry Agbadou, director of “Gla,” Ivory Coast’s first genre film and winner of 2024’s NISA d’Or.
Running June 26-28, the conference catches Africa and a contradictory time. “Overall, Africa’s entertainment market is growing relatively quickly but there are key caveats,” says Daoud Jackson, an analyst at Omdia. Sub-Saharan Africa’s pay TV market in 2025 is forecast to be $4.1 billion, rising to $5.3 billion by 2030. That a healthy growth rate of 5.27% CAGR but not stratospheric, he adds, because of three factors: piracy, a lack of competition between OTT operators in some markets – – “compared to other areas of the globe, the lack of content is more commonly cited as an issue for African consumers, and to build that stable ecosystem you need multiple players,” says Jackson – and, also frustrating larger growth, says Jackson, the overall macroeconomic situation has been challenging across the continent.
How can Africa’s own industry move the dial? Expect some answers at SICA. Opening the trade fair with a keynote address is Larry Kasanoff, co-founder of Lightning Entertainment with James Cameron, and producer of “True Lies” and the “Mortal Kombat” franchise.
Alex Berger, producer at TOP of milestone French spy thriller “The Bureau,” adapted for the U.S. in “The Agency” starring Michael Fassbender, will be sharing his experience of shooting in Abidjan a new series created with Arte.
Co-directing and starring in mockumentary “Simply Black,” his break-out feature debut as a helmer, French actor-director-rapper Jean-Pascal Zadi will also be at SICA to drill down on his Ivory Coast shoot of just-released movie “Black to the Future.”
Berger’s will deliver a Day 1 keynote on Thursday just after another keynote from Shuzo John Shiota, president of Japan’s Polygon Pictures, behind “Transformers: Prime,” “Lost in Oz,” and “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and two episodes of “Love, Death and Robots.”
Shiota and Zadi are slated for a major Day 3 session which also features Kasanoff, Nigerian comedian-writer-director Mohamed Mustapha and Belgian producer Boris van Gils who set up in 2012 line production company Boucan Abidjan, whose productions include smash hit “Serial (Bad) Weddings.”
Inevitably, AI comes under the spotlight on several panels. One features Bénédicte Lesage, a member of French regulator Arcom, who will talk on a panel AI and Audiovisual Creation: Opportunities and Challenges for Africa.
Underscoring just how seriously the Ivory Coast government takes SICA seriously, five of its ministers – for communication (Amadou Coulibaly), culture and Francophonie (Françoise Remarck), digital transition (Ibrahim Kalil Konaté), youth promotion and tourism (Mamadou Touré) and leisure (Siandou Fofana) – will engage in a decision-makers’ conversation on the way forward for Ivory Coast film and TV. Coulibaly, Remark and Fofana return on Day 3 to debate how to raise Ivory Coast’s attractiveness as a major shoot locale. They will also sign an inter-ministerial decree, its content to be revealed.
Any way forward takes in co-production and global sales.
Kim Younes Charbit, CEO of global TV channel TV5 Monde, one of the biggest buyers of French-language content, will deliver a keynote on Friday.
The themes will also come under focus at a panel, moderated by Ana Ballo at Ivory Coast pubcaster RTI, Distribution of Titles for the Emergence of a Continental Market: Mechanisms and Levers. Panelists include Laurent Sicouri, Canal+ International’s director of cinema and series.
Another key session, again debating co-production and distribution, features Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako, a Cannes competition contender and César Award winner for 2014’s “Timbuktu,” French producer Axel Guyot (“Les 3 Lascars”), Burkino Faso’s Dani Kouyaté and South Africa’s Dan Jawitz, whose recent productions include Netflix hit “Wild Is the Wind” and Toronto selected “The Umbrella Man.”
At another round table, TF1 Studio’s Sophie Hoarau and Pathé Touch Afrique’s Sébastien Onomo will discuss the distribution and export of African content.
Case studies at this year’s SICA include U.K. producer Hamid Ibrahim, a story co-writer and production designer on “Iwaju,” who will unpack the Walt Disney Animation Studios TV Afrofuturist series; director Landry Agbadou on “Gla,” Ivory Coast’s first genre film and winner of 2024’s NISA d’Or; Ivory Coast filmmaker Joël Akafou, talking about “Loin de moi la colère,” which won a best documentary Bronze Stallion at Fespaco 2025, and social media expert Haifa Daoud’s showcase of AI generated content.
