Biography

David Franciscus is a SAFTA winning filmmaker, focussing on his career as a creative producer and screenwriter. During high school, David found filmmaking to be the perfect mix of the art forms and interests he loved. Starting in his second year at university in 2009, he gained invaluable experience in the South African film industry, working on local and international TV commercials for several years. Thereafter, David spent years working as a creative research - producing over 500 treatments under some of the most prolific South African film directors.

After graduating, he spent a year in the U.S, based in Madison, Wisconsin while completing an associate's degree, studying screenwriting, psychology, 35mm photography and comic book writing. David has always been in love with cinema, obsessed with the films of Kubrick, Spielberg, Lucas, Scorsese, Coppola, Fincher, P. T. Anderson. These masters inspired David's approach to storytelling and his focus on thought-provoking, character-centric narratives that entertain and inspire audiences.

In 2015, David won a Silver Lorie for the first commercial he produced and directed. That commercial took him to the Cannes Lions, launching his career as a commercial director. He has since directed and produced several TV commercials for global territories. David won a Gold Loerie for being Brand SA's Young Creative 2018. In 2019, David was included in Mail & Guardian's 200 Young South Africans in the media category. David's feature projects: The Day of the Vow and Bosryer (Bushrider) were selected to participate in Berlinale Talents, Durban edition - as well as Durban Film Mart's co-production and finance market. In 2021, he began focusing solely on producing, leaving advertising behind. He was an executive producer on Robin Goode's debut feature, Rust Road (2023).

In 2023, David produced his first feature film, Street Trash, directed by Ryan Kruger, which premiered at IFFR Rotterdam 2025. Later in 2023 David won a SAFTA for Emerging Filmmaker and was invited to attend the ZFF Academy as a producer at the Zurich Film Festival. David runs the South African Independent Film Festival (SAIFF) alongside Ryan Kruger, which screens genre-focussed shorts, features and music videos from Africa and around the world. The festivals also serves as a vehicle to develop local audiences, a forum to allow filmmakers to network and collaborate, and to facilitate skills transfer to disadvantaged filmmakers through internships. David serves on the advisory board of his alma mater, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).

David has several long-form projects in various stages of development and is a passionate, tenacious and forward-thinking individual who believes all media creators have a responsibility to inform and entertain, to spark positive societal change.
- IMDb mini biography by: Protagonist Studios