Joy Sapieka

Joy Sapieka is a publicist who has worked in Film and Television for over twenty-five years. Her extensive, distinguished international credits include over forty feature films and thirty television films and series, including Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winning productions such as AMERICAN BEAUTY, ROAD TO PERDITION, EAST IS EAST, TSOTSI, QUEER AS FOLK, DISTRICT 9, THE NO. 1 LADIES’ DETECTIVE AGENCY and THE PRISONER. Joy was Sam Mendes’ personal publicist for six years and also worked with many acclaimed directors, including Stephen Daldry, Paul Greengrass, Paul Webb, Joe Wright, Anthony Minghella, Gavin Hood and Mira Nair. A keen promoter of the indigenous film industry, Joy’s African slate as a publicist includes DISTRICT 9, WHITE WEDDING, QUEEN OF KATWE, DEMOCRATS, BEATS OF THE ANTONOV and RAFIKI, amongst others. For the past ten years, Joy has been part of the Encounters South Africa International Documentary Festival team and has been involved in the promotion of the African Screen Network since its inception. Joy has promoted a variety of films at the Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Sundance, Deauville, New York, London, Sydney, Galway and Edinburgh Film Festivals. She was Senior Publicist (Africa) for Al Jazeera TV Network from 2012 – 2017. She has been invited to run Marketing, Distribution and Producing Masterclasses and Workshops at AFDA, UCT Film School, City Varsity, SAE and KZN Film Commission and has acted as an adviser to numerous local film initiatives.