Who We Are

The AFDA Way

The AFDA Goal

At AFDA, our goal is to develop a value-driven institution that contributes meaningfully to transformative nation-building through education. We provide a relevant, stimulating, rigorous and globally connected learning experience that equips students with the creative, entrepreneurial and leadership skills required to build sustainable careers, create employment and grow the creative economy.

Our graduates are empowered to become storytellers, innovators, entrepreneurs and industry leaders who create meaningful cultural and economic impact both in South Africa and around the world. AFDA’s educational philosophy is founded on creativity, collaboration, innovation, integrity and lifelong learning.

Why AFDA?

AFDA’s distinctive project-led learning methodology mirrors the realities of today’s creative industries. Students learn by creating, collaborating, researching and producing real-world projects throughout their studies rather than simply studying theory in isolation. Guided by a faculty of accomplished academics and active industry professionals, students graduate with practical experience, professional portfolios and the confidence to thrive in an ever-evolving global creative economy.

The AFDA learning experience is characterised by:

• Project-Led, Industry-Driven Learning: Every production, performance, business venture or creative project reflects authentic industry practice, enabling students to graduate with extensive practical experience and a professional portfolio.
• Hybrid & Future-Focused Education: A dynamic blend of on-campus experiential learning, collaborative studio practice and digital engagement prepares students for both physical and virtual creative workplaces.
• 21st-Century Creative Skills: Students develop creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, digital fluency, entrepreneurial thinking, leadership, adaptability and ethical decision-making, skills essential for success in the global creative economy.
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Film, television, live performance, creative writing, business innovation and entrepreneurship students work together on integrated productions, mirroring the collaborative nature of today’s creative industries.
• Authentic Assessment: AFDA replaces traditional examinations with Multiple Assessment Modes, where students are evaluated through practical productions, research, industry feedback, audience engagement, collaboration, innovation and market relevance. Assessment reflects how creative professionals are evaluated in the real world rather than through conventional written exams.
• Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Students are encouraged not only to secure employment but also to create opportunities by developing original intellectual property, launching creative businesses and building sustainable careers.
• Industry Immersion: Through masterclasses, internships, industry partnerships, festivals and collaborations with leading broadcasters, production companies, streaming platforms and creative businesses, students build valuable professional networks before graduating.
• Elite Alumni Network: AFDA graduates join a community of more than 8,500 alumni working across the world’s leading creative industries. They are award-winning filmmakers, performers, producers, entrepreneurs, executives, writers, composers and innovators shaping content for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, DStv Stream, M-Net, kykNET, Mzansi Magic, SABC, e.tv and numerous international studios, broadcasters and digital platforms.

At AFDA, education is not about preparing students for the future, it is about empowering them to create it.

Learning Methods

The AFDA Educational Promise

To provide students with the conceptual, perceptual and concrete skills that will enable them to originate meaningful narrative concepts and human behaviors that are relevant to target audiences, and to truthfully and accurately deliver these narratives through appropriate use of medium and aesthetic form and the employment of resources to accurately and economically produce and sell the completed production.

AFDA Educational Objectives

1. To provide conceptual, perceptual and concrete skills that will enable students to originate meaningful narrative concepts and to understand why these might be relevant and the impact they may have on target audiences and society in general.
2.  To understand why human behavior and culture are the agent through which narratives are embodied and made emotionally relevant to target audiences.
3.  To understand how their chosen medium of expression can be considered and used to truthfully and accurately produce their narrative.
4. To understand how aesthetic elements might be used to establish and produce the appropriate form of the world in which the narrative is set.
5.  To understand how to plan and employ resources to economically produce and sell a production to achieve return on investment.

What makes AFDA unique?

• AFDA offers a learning system that utilises a diverse number of learning strategies and methodologies which include tacit learning, learning by approximation, collaborative learning, scaffold learning and learning through socialisation.
• The AFDA learning and assessment system caters to what Howard Gardner refined to as ‘Multiple Intelligences’. These diverse intelligences are:
  • Visual-Spatial
  • Bodily-kinesthetic
  • Musical
  • Interpersonal
  • Intrapersonal
  • Linguistic
  • Logical –Mathematical
• The creative industries require diverse specialization (intelligences) that are able to collaborate in an economically viable manner to achieve high standards of production.
• AFDA students are given the opportunity to explore and discover their aptitude and by extension their career path.
• AFDA uses a learning system designed to deal with the opportunities and challenges of the knowledge economy and the future. It is a market related learning system focusing on the audience and the target market.
• We offer an outcomes-based learning system which requires a hands-on approach, focusing on leadership, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. This mimics the industry and takes place in an authentic learning environment.
• AFDA focuses on the goals of the learner.
• AFDA students do not write traditional exams. Students are assessed on a individual basis and team/group focused research. An application of theory and research in the creation and exhibition of entertainment content or in development and monetisation of entrepreneurial business and disruptive technologies is what primarily constitutes assessment at AFDA.
• AFDA’s learning process is highly effective and creates a network of skilled graduates who are able to forge careers in the entertainment, media and other creative industries.

Equipment & Facilities

Professional Gear:  Professional Standards.

At AFDA, students don’t learn on yesterday’s technology. Across our Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Gqeberha and Hatfield campuses, we maintain year-for-year equipment parity, ensuring every student has access to the same world-class facilities, software and production technology regardless of where they study. Continuous investment in the latest industry-standard equipment enables students to graduate with the practical skills and confidence expected by today’s global creative industries.

Students train using the same professional technologies found on leading film, television, streaming and commercial productions.

• Cinema Cameras
  Industry-leading ARRI Alexa and ARRI Alexa Mini cinema cameras, complemented by Canon C70 cinema camera systems equipped with professional cine lenses, wireless follow-focus systems, wireless video transmission and DJI Ronin RS4 Pro gimbals for cinematic image creation.
• Lighting & Grip
  Professional ARRI lighting systems, NANLITE lighting solutions, LED tube lighting, grip equipment, modifiers and accessories that replicate professional production environments.
• Sound Recording & Audio Post
  Dedicated audio production facilities featuring AVID S3 digital mixing consoles, 5.1 Surround Sound studios, professional field recorders, Sennheiser microphones and industry-standard sound design and mixing environments.
• Post-Production & Finishing
  High-performance editing and finishing suites equipped with Adobe Creative Cloud, DaVinci Resolve, Avid Media Composer and professional colour grading, visual effects, animation and audio post-production workflows.
• Emerging Technologies
  Students also gain exposure to the latest production technologies, including virtual reality tools, wireless production workflows and digital asset management systems that reflect the future of content creation.

Facilities include:

• Professional film studios and television production studios
• Multi-camera broadcast facilities
• Dedicated sound stages and production spaces
• Black box theatres and performance venues
• Rehearsal studios and performance training spaces
• Editing, colour grading, animation and visual effects laboratories
• Professional sound recording, mixing and sound design studios
• Screening cinemas and presentation theatres
• Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship collaboration hubs
• Collaborative production spaces, lecture venues and creative project studios designed to mirror professional industry workflows.

History

AFDA was founded in 1994 by Garth Holmes, Bata Passchier and Deon Opperman with a bold vision: to transform creative education in South Africa by developing graduates who could build sustainable creative industries through innovation, entrepreneurship and storytelling. From humble beginnings with just six students, a rented VCR and a broken television, AFDA has grown into one of the world’s leading institutions for the creative economy.

Today, AFDA has more than 2,700 students, over 280 academic and administrative staff members, five fully equipped campuses in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Gqeberha and Hatfield, Pretoria, and a global community of more than 8,500 alumni working across the film, television, performance, business and creative industries.

Over the past three decades, AFDA graduates have helped shape South Africa’s creative landscape while making an increasingly significant impact internationally. Alumni have contributed to more than 380 feature films, hundreds of television productions, award-winning theatre productions, music, digital media and global streaming content, while founding successful production companies, creative agencies and entrepreneurial ventures that continue to grow the creative economy.

AFDA’s legacy is reflected in the remarkable achievements of its students, staff and alumni. In 2006, AFDA became the only South African institution to win a Student Academy Award® (Oscar®) for Elalini, recipient of the Best Foreign Student Film award. In 2020, AFDA alumni Ross Hockrow and Kyle Stroebel worked as the colourists on the Academy Award-winning documentary My Octopus Teacher, while in 2021 AFDA staff, students and alumni played a pivotal role in the production of Lakutshon’ Ilanga, which won Gold at the Student Academy Awards. Since 2020 alone, the AFDA community has earned 96 SAFTA Awards, 34 kykNET Silwerskerm Awards, 32 Simon Sabela Awards, 42 SASC Visual Spectrum Awards, 10 South African Music Awards (SAMAs), 8 Durban International Film Festival awards, 6 Loeries, 5 Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards, 4 Naledi Theatre Awards, 4 Jozi Film Festival Awards, 3 Standard Bank Ovation Awards and numerous other national and international honours.

AFDA is internationally recognised as a full member of CILECT (The International Association of Film and Television Schools), a distinction it has held since 2006. Through this global network of more than 180 leading film, television and media schools across over 65 countries, AFDA students and alumni have opportunities for international collaboration, research, exchange and postgraduate study at world-renowned institutions including UCLA, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia College Chicago, La Fémis in Paris, London Film School, Chapman University in California and the Beijing Film Academy. AFDA’s longstanding involvement with CILECT has further strengthened its position as Africa’s leading institution for the creative economy and a globally connected centre of creative excellence.