Encounters International Documentary Festival has become a pivotal event in the South African film calendar. The 2009 programme of over 40 films combined the work of a host of top international and local filmmakers. A record 14 South African films, made by the best and the brightest local filmmaking talent, made their World débuts, and another two had their South African Premières at Encounters. Encounters was the first South African platform to showcase major feature documentary films. Since its inception Encounters has screened over 1,241 films – 270 International titles and 130 South African titles – and has commissioned 44 films, with record attendance figures to date of 98,612. In 2009 the festival screened an array of international work from Afghanistan, UK, USA, Canada, Cuba, Senegal, France, Egypt, Denmark, Germany, Israel, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Cameroon and Belgium and held Master Classes, Panel Discussions, and filmmaker Q&As.
Encounters is the only South African distributor dedicated to distributing documentaries to the South African public. as it promotes and sells films to television, through DVDs and in cinemas. Encounters is registered as a non-profit Section 21 Company – the Encounters Training and Development Institute.