South Africa's Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri may have failed to show at the opening party for the seventh edition of Sithengi, Southern Africa's Film and TV Market. But that did not dampen the spirits of delegates who acknowledged that, despite organisational hiccups, it was the best Sithengi so far.

The event attracted a new record of over 1700 delegates from 49 countries, and this year the focus was on telling and selling African stories in an African way while still appealing to a global market.

In an opening keynote address acclaimed Burkinabe director Gaston Kabore said: "Sithengi is a vital tool for realizing the dream of a Pan-African film federation in the near future." To that end the market attracted unprecedented delegations from Nigeria, Kenya, Namibia and Ghana.

At a conference entitled 'What is Africa buying and who is buying Africa'' a panel identified lack of finance and commissioning infrastructures for local content as bugbears for local production. But Nigeria, which has over 80 television stations and a 60% local content requirement that is legislated and enforced, was used as a constructive example for other countries to follow.

The opening films at the first ever Sithengi Film Festival reflected the state of the South African film industry in that they were not quite full length features. The opening films were: Waiting For Valdez and A Drink In The Passage, two local 26 minute dramas produced by pay-station M-Net and Ubuntu's Wounds a 10 minute film by South African Sechaba Morojele.

To be fair the market and festival also saw the African premiere of Jason Xenopolous's digital feature Promised Land which a month previously won Best Screenplay at the Tokyo Film Festival. All the same, feature production in the country is not as fertile as it could be.

The market itself, which ran alongside the festival, featured numerous conferences, seminars, training workshops and networking functions.

Canadians were there in full force. Canada is the only country to have a formal co-production treaty with South Africa - one that has resulted in several features including the $15m Stander and Sandmother. A 13 strong delegation including representatives from Telefilm Canada and Alliance Atlantis held several co-production conferences.

The Italians also looked to be interested in a co-production agreement and members of the Italian Author's Association as well as the Producer's Association indicated that a treaty would be in the works by early next year.