Babalwa Baartman

Development Producer & Founder at Sanusi Films

Speaker

Babalwa Baartman is a social entrepreneur and development producer who founded her company, Sanusi Chronicles in 2015. She is a participant of the 2022 Realness/Netflix Development Executive Programme, the Realness Screenwriter's Residency 2023 cohort, Cannes Producers Network (2024) and an alumna of the Durban Film Mart (2022), Rotterdam Lab (2024), Film Independent Global Media Makers Lab (2024) and the inaugural cohort of the UNDP Timbuktoo Creators Lab (2025). Babalwa values impact storytelling and filmmaking and she has co-written a short film Sizohlala (2019) which premiered at the Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival, and produced and co-wrote a feature Mlungu Warn- Good Madam (2021) which premiered at The Toronto Film Festival in the Platform Prize Competition. Babalwa founded her company, Sanusi, out of the passion to deliver compelling and quality African storytelling; our vision is to develop and produce auteur voices in film. Sanusi collaborates in the development and financing of authentic African projects with a diverse group of creatives and filmmakers who draw inspiration from the everyday lives of the African; In the past, present and future, capturing the infinity of African time. Babalwa Baartman prioritises commercially viable, sustainable and inclusive production models contributing to the development of the African film ecosystems.