Francois Maree(III)

François Maree is a South African writer, director, producer, and actor. He graduated cum laude from Stellenbosch University with a BA (Hons) in Drama & Theatre Studies in 2015. He co-founded the production company THOC (The House of Creatives), known today as off-topic, in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2016. The company is based between New York City and South Africa. He wrote, directed, and produced the critically and commercially acclaimed plays "Bacchus in Hillbrow" and "When Clouds Sing", which toured prestigious theatre festivals (Aardklop, US Woordfees, Vrystaat Arts Festival) in South Africa in 2016 and 2017. He was accepted into the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema in Brooklyn, New York, in 2017 to pursue an MFA in Screenwriting, where Oscar-nominated directors Darren Aronofsky and Milcho Manchevski were his lecturers. He received the Made in NY Award in 2017 for screenwriting. His short film "Love. Thy. Neighbor." was screened at the CUNY Film Festival 2018 in New York City. He was part of the story development team at Park Pictures in New York City in 2018. He assisted Rudy Valdez on his Emmy award-winning documentary, "The Sentence", in 2018, produced by HBO. He worked on the documentary "Special Olympics: 50 Years of Changing the Game" for 728 Films and ESPN. His solo show "GUY" was part of the New York Theater Festival's Summerfest 2019. He was part of the writers' room for Infinity Films' television series, "Troukoors" ("Wedding Fever"), which premiered on Showmax in 2021. He won the kykNET Silwerskerm Film Festival Pitch to Us competition in 2020. The esteemed Hollywood film producer Kisha Imani Cameron, known for her work at New Line Cinema and on Spike Lee's "Bamboozled", was his mentor. An expert panel chose his film "The Vegan and the Hunter" as the winner. François wrote the screenplay and also directed and co-produced the film. "The Vegan and the Hunter" had its South African premiere at the kykNET Silwerskerm Film Festival in 2022. His feature film project, "SOAP", was selected for the DFM Access 2023 as part of the Durban FilmMart. This incubation program supports producers in shaping their stories, preparing their project presentations, and understanding the marketplace to create effective strategies for their current projects and to plan their professional trajectory. "The Vegan and the Hunter" was picked up by the award-winning US distributor, 7 Palms Entertainment, for international distribution in 2023. François was selected for the prestigious DFMI Business Lab in partnership with the Durban FilmMart Institute and the DW Akademie. 35 participants from 22 countries across the African continent were chosen to undergo a 12-week business development programme to engage in a global market effectively. François directed a commercial for Dynamic Yield by Mastercard in 2023, celebrating the company being named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines by sending an award literally to space.