Deepixels has announced WiC, short for Watch in Community, as a new route between African screen stories and the audiences who might pay to watch them. The announcement was published by the Durban FilmMart Institute on October 6, 2026, during the run-up to the market's October 9 to 12 edition in Durban.
The proposal is relevant to filmmakers and other screen creators whose distribution plans need more than a finished film and a festival selection. It puts the audience relationship into the conversation alongside production and finance. That is a useful question to examine, while the service's commercial results remain something to establish through evidence.
What was announced
The organiser's WiC announcement describes a model combining online discovery and ticket acquisition with screenings in physical venues. Deepixels intends to connect programming, venue operation and audience information rather than position the initiative as a replacement for existing distributors or cinemas. It also describes further testing through a South African pilot after FilmMart. Those are announced plans, not independently verified operating results.
Where it fits in the Durban programme
The official event programme lists a Build The Audience session presented with Deepixels. It names Ross Joughin, Toni Monty and Molise Ramaili alongside Helen Kuun of Indigenous Film Distribution and Paul Robinson of NEFTI Films, with Russel Hlongwane moderating. The entry places the conversation at the Elangeni Hotel.
The October 9 session date has passed. This report verifies the published programme, rather than claiming attendance or confirming that every planned activity happened. The announcement and programme also give different session end times, so readers should use the organiser's current timetable for any operational enquiry. That difference does not establish a completed launch or a successful demonstration.
A broader audience-development discussion
FilmMart's September 30 industry-programme announcement places the event's conversations across finance, equitable co-production, technology and emerging screen formats. The programme also includes impact and animation strands. The market's official website identifies the Southern Sun Elangeni and Maharani hotels as its Durban venue for October 9 to 12.
These sources supply the event context. They do not establish WiC's catalogue size, ticket sales, venue coverage, creator payouts or audience retention, and this report assigns no numbers to those measures.
Questions creators can take into a distribution discussion
AfroStream's editorial interpretation is that an audience-development proposal becomes useful to a creator when its promises can be translated into a clear working agreement. Before committing a film or promotional assets, ask which rights are requested, where they apply, how long they last and whether other screenings remain possible.
Ask separately how ticket income would be counted and settled. A ticketing workflow, an audience dashboard and a payment to the rights holder are different things. Request the reporting interval, permitted deductions, payment conditions and a way to reconcile reported attendance with revenue. These are diligence questions, not claims about WiC's terms.
Audience information deserves the same care. Establish which reports a creator would receive, whether they contain aggregate results or personal information, and what permissions govern any subsequent marketing. A screening can help someone discover a story without giving every participant permission to reuse that person's contact details.
For a pilot, define the evidence that would justify the next step before treating scale as achieved. Repeat screenings, repeat attendance and timely settlement would each answer a different practical question. Keep the agreed evaluation separate from promotional language and retain the option to ask for clarification when the evidence is incomplete.
Source check
All four linked organiser references were reviewed on October 11, 2026. This is reporting on a current African screen-distribution announcement and its published programme, with editorial diligence questions clearly identified. It does not certify a working provider integration, recommend an investment, or promise earnings to creators.