December is here, and there’s still time to squeeze more opportunity out of 2025! Funding calls, open applications, career-spanning exhibitions, independent film showcases, cross-continental collabs and more – creative impetus can be found all around Msanzi. Get inspired by opportunities and soak up the festive energy as we look forward to a bright new year.
Featured Opportunities & Events for Creatives:
1. Création Africa: Call for Entrepreneurs
A programme supporting and scaling up cultural entrepreneurs in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi. Backed by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of France and the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), it offers mentorship, incubation, training, funding and networking for creatives ready to grow their businesses.
Open to registered entrepreneurs in visual and performing arts, music, film, design, craft, fashion, animation, gaming, digital media, publishing, architecture and cultural heritage.
The programme runs from February to November 2026.
🔗 Apply here: Call for entrepreneurs
📧 Queries: projectofficer.faec@frenchinstitute.org.za
2. Music In Africa Foundation x NEFCISA internship opportunities in media and creative fields
📍 Nationwide
📅 Deadline: Rolling throughout 2025–2026
The Music In Africa Foundation (MIAF) invites young, passionate and unemployed individuals to apply for internship opportunities offered through the Foundation’s Internship Programme, aimed at providing valuable work experience. This opportunity forms part of the National Employment Facility for the Creative Industries in South Africa (NEFCISA) — a MIAF-led national initiative that creates jobs for the common good within South Africa’s creative economy.
🔗 Apply here: NEFCISA Call for media workers, journalists, videographers and photographers
📧 Queries: neo@musicinafrica.net
3. The Music In Africa Foundation x NEFCISA: Become a NEFCISA host organisation, studio partner or worker
📍Gauteng, Free State, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Mpumalanga, Western Cape
📅 Deadline: Rolling throughout 2025–2026
NEFCISA is empowering South Africa’s creative workforce by linking passionate individuals with forward-thinking organisations. Through paid placements, training, and collaboration, the programme helps creatives gain real industry experience while supporting organisations that drive cultural and social development.
Apply if you’re:
- an organisation that exists within the creative industry of South Africa in Gauteng, Free State, KZN, Western Cape and Mpumalanga;
- a worker interested in the creative and cultural industries of South Africa; or
- a recording studio / music production hub in South Africa
🔗 Apply here: Join NEFCISA
📧 Queries: neo@musicinafrica.net
4. The South African Independent Film Festival
🗓️ 5-7 December 2025
📍The Labia, Cape Town | The Bioscope, Johannesburg
The South African Independent Film Festival (SAIFF), the country’s leading platform for genre- driven and independent cinema, returns for its eighth edition this December, hosted in Cape Town at The Labia Theatre (5–7 December) and Johannesburg at The Bioscope Independent Cinema (6–7 December).
Since its inception in 2017, SAIFF has become a vital fixture in the African film landscape, celebrating bold, inventive voices across horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and social thrillers while fostering meaningful collaboration between local and international talent.
The event promises a weekend of fun-filled cinema, exposing local audiences to a mix of local and international genre films.
🔗 More info: SAIFF at The Labia in Cape Town | SAIFF at The Bioscope in Johannesburg
5. Michaelis Graduate Show 2025
🗓️ 5–13 December 2025
📍Cape Town
The Michaelis School of Fine Art hosts its annual Graduate Exhibition at Hiddingh Campus from 5 December–13 December 2025. This exhibition is a major event that draws many interested art collectors and enthusiasts to this beautiful historical campus.
A broad selection of painting, sculpture, new media, print and photographic works from the country’s premier art school are showcased.
The opening evening is on 5 December at 17:00
🔗 More info: https://humanities.uct.ac.za/michaelis
6. LatAm Content Meeting
📅 Deadline: 10 December 2025
Looking for partners or funding for your next documentary? Submit your project to the LatAm Content Meeting pitch sessions, happening 13–15 April in São Paulo, Brazil. The call is open to filmmakers worldwide, with top broadcasters, streamers, and funders attending to discover new stories.
🔗 Apply here: LatAm Content Meeting
7. Steven Cohen: Long Life (career-spanning retrospective)
🗓️ 11 December 2025
📍Cape Town
Iziko Museums of South Africa is proud to present a bold, career-spanning retrospective of one of South Africa’s most provocative and pioneering artists.
From Steven Cohen’s early textile works, to uninvited public interventions and haunting performances for stage, the exhibition represents the breadth of a profoundly influential career. Cohen’s work is about love, loss, identity, and remembrance. In Jewish tradition, to say “I wish you a long life” to the bereaved is a message of condolence and hope. This exhibition honours that sentiment – inviting you to reflect, feel, and witness a life lived through art.
Curated by Anthea Buys
Supported by the Embassy of France in South Africa, Lesotho & Malawi, the French Institute of South Africa, and Institut Français in Paris.
📩 Press enquiries: Melody Kleinsmith | mediaofficer@iziko.org.za
8. Call for proposals: African-European tandems in performing arts and music ($60 000)
📅 Deadline: 14 December 2025
Cultural organisations in sub-Saharan Africa and Europe are invited to apply for co-production funding under the Connect and Create – Creative Tandems programme – a EU-funded initiative implemented by the Goethe-Institut and Expertise France, in collaboration with the Institut Français and the EUNIC network.
This programme supports long-term partnerships between African and European performing arts organisations and artists, funding substantial three-year collaborations that create new work, build institutional capacity, and establish lasting professional relationships across continents.
🔗 Apply here: Connect and Create – Creative Tandems
