Philip Key is the managing director of Moonlighting Filmmakers, Southern Africa’s premier production services company, and has been involved in the South African film industry for
more than 27 years.
Philip started his career as a technician working across all the filmmaking disciplines. By 1989, he had recognized South Africa’s considerable potential to attract foreign filmmakers to the region and founded Moonlighting.
He was one of the first producers to travel abroad to market the country as a film production destination. Since then, Moonlighting has become
South Africa’s largest and foremost production services company, incorporating commercial, film, TV and photographic facilities.
Moonlighting Commercials has, at the time of writing, serviced 1091 international commercials for clients from over 30 countries. Moonlighting Films, established with Genevieve Hofmeyr in 1997, has provided production services on 33 major international studio and independent feature films and co-produced several feature films.
In 2003, Key took the company’s production capabilities beyond African borders and established Moonlighting Romania; in 2005, he established Moonlighting Chile with partner Nicci Perrow. Both companies were set up to compliment Moonlighting’s existing portfolio with an extended range of production service location and budgetry options.
In 2009,Grinder Food and Films was established — a Cape Town based film company that specializes in food and drink cinematography.
Key has, since the start of his career, played an active role in industry affairs. He was on the board of African Media Entertainment (AME) and the company’s acting CEO. He was a member of SAFTA in the 1980s, has been on the executive committee of the Commercial Producers Association (CPA) and has served on the board of the Cape Town Film Commission and AFDA.
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