The UK Film Council'sDevelopment Fund and South Africa's National Film and Video Foundation's "25Words Or Less" competition has named its first six recipients of funding.

The four South Africanprojects will each receive $18,504 (£10,000) in funding to develop a first draftof their project. Each will be helped by a script editor appointed by the UKFilm Council or the NFVF. Each draft will then be jointly produced by a UK and South African producer.

Each pitch had to be 25words or less from the genres teen horror, comedy fish out of water, or zero tohero.

The four winning projectsare Khumba And The Lost Legend Of The Quagga by Anthony Silverstonand Raffaella Delle Donne,about an outcast zebra who saves his herd; AnotherBrother Moses by Uzanenkosi Motha,about thieves who break into a reality TV house; Judgement Day by Sharlto Copley and SimonHansen, about a mystery virus that causes a national panic; and Jimmy In Pink by HannekeSchutte, about a farmer who inherits a hairdressingempire.

"Developing opportunities for the UK to work with international film talent, exploringdifferent approaches to storytelling and finding new voices is vital tocreating exciting new films," said Jenny Borgars, headof the Development Fund at the UK Film Council. South Africa is a rich source of writing and creative talent andthis partnership with the National Film and Video Foundation has attractedexciting talent to develop their ideas as film projects and opened the door tofuture co-productions."

Added Ryan Haidarian, head of development and production at the NFVF: "Wewere overjoyed at the calibre of pitches. It was a proud moment for us havingto mill over the shortlist of fantastic story ideas wondering which one was thebest. Ultimately we had to add a fourth project due to the stiff competition."

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