AVIJOZI 2025 Recap: A Heart-of-Steel Celebration of African Creativity

AVIJOZI 2025 came and went in a blur of pixels, panels and pure energy. Modern Opulent Gazette was proud to stand as a media partner for this year’s two-day creative summit in Johannesburg, and the scale was unmistakable: more attendees, more ideas, and a line-up that stretched from eSports arenas to high-level film industry talks.

Day One Highlights

The weekend opened with serious creative muscle: a two-day AI course for VFX and animation, an Unreal Engine bootcamp, and a lively panel on blended finance, among many other insightful offerings. Crowds moved between demonstrations of authentic African aesthetics in character design, Zikhona Sodlaka’s “Business of Film” talk, an indie eSports tournament, ‘Using Music as a Narrative’ sessions, film screenings and live music. By sundown it was clear this year’s festival had outgrown its own reputation.

Day Two Spotlight

Sunday belonged to the much-anticipated panel The Making of Shaka iLembe, hosted by MOG and featuring Lemogang Tsipa, Zeno Petersen, Adze Ugah and moderator Leona Naidoo. Other sessions dug into actor-producer synergies, while Karabo Lediga and Rob van den Bragt drew packed rooms for their talks. Gamers battled through the final eSports rounds as screenings and music kept the vibe electric.

Bigger, Bolder, Better

Attendees posed for selfies with favourite actors, pitched ideas, had portfolios reviewed and soaked up advice from industry leaders. One regular summed it up perfectly: “I’ve been to the last two AVIJOZIs and it just keeps getting better. I can’t imagine how they’ll top it next year, but they probably will.”

A huge thank-you goes to Nosipho van den Bragt and the team at Chocolate Tribe for transforming an attorney’s idea into a national creative treasure. This year’s theme, Heart of Steel, rang true when Adze Ugah urged the crowd to turn doubt into motivation; a fitting finale to a weekend that proved African creativity is unstoppable.