Bongiwe Selane is an award-winning producer who has produced across several mediums, including commissioned serial content for Africa’s largest pay TV broadcaster, multiple short films, a feature film and a documentary series. Her credits and accolades include Culture Shock, the 2013 SAFTA winner for best reality show and Best South African Short Film at The Durban International Film Festival in 2015 for uNomalanga and The Witch. She was the first recipient of the NFVF’s Female Only Filmmakers Slate Project, which saw her produce a series of 26 short narrative films by women filmmakers.  Happiness is a Four-Letter Word is her debut feature film which was released in February 2016 and is the best performing local film of 2016 in S.A. She co-produced the award-winning film This is not a Burial, it’s a Resurrection by writer/director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese which won the Visionary Award at Sundance in 2020.  

Bongiwe is currently in post-production on the sequel to Happiness is a Four-letter Word, titled Happiness Ever After to be released on the streaming service Netflix. She is also in late development and financing stage of the adaptation of Kopano Matlwa debut novel called Coconut written and to be directed by Palesa Shongwe.

Bongiwe’s most recent honors include being appointed Overall Chairperson of the South African Film and TV Awards (SAFTAs) in 2019. She is an alumni of the Durban Film Mart (DFM), the Rotterdam Producers Lab, La Fabrique Cinema de L’Institute Francais (Cannes), Produire au Sud Workshop in Nantes France, and the prestigious Venice Biennale Cinema College. In 2018, she was awarded a full scholarship by Creative Media Europe to participate in the year-long Producers Workshop EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs) and is currently the African Ambassador for EAVE. 

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