The 10th South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) ceremony night is fast approaching and nominees are in all sorts of haste, busy doing their final rounds of campaigning for votes. To help guide Screen Access readers on the films in the running for this year's SAFTAs Best Picture award, I have prepared the ultimate breakdown:
AYANDA
This film by award winning director, Sara Blecher (her first feature film "Otelo Burning" was screened to great critical acclaim and won over 17 international awards), tells a coming of age story about 21-year-old Afro-hipster Ayanda (Fulu Moguvhani) who has a talent of taking old pieces of furniture and giving them new life. In the Johannesburg community of Yeoville, vibrant with migrants from across the African continent, against the backdrop of unspoken love; Ayanda tries to navigate a path for herself. She embarks on a journey of self discovery while trying to keep the memory of her father alive, when she takes on the task of saving her family's failing auto garage, eight years after his death.
The film boasts of a stellar South African cast including Ntathi Moshesh, Kenneth Nkosi, Jafta Mamabola, Thomas Gumede, Sihle Xaba and veteran actress Vanessa Cooke. It also stars Nigerian actor OC Ukeje.
The festival title of the feature was "Ayanda and the Mechanic". It was produced by Real Eyes in association with Terry Pheto's Leading Lady and was picked up for a November 2015 release by independent film distribution company ARRAY. The South African production quickly built a strong global audience with worldwide, film festival organisers snapping it up. In June 2015, "Ayanda" debuted to rave reviews at the at the prestigious Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF) and won the Special Jury Prize following its screening in the World Fiction Competition. Subsequent to that, the motion picture was the opening night film at the 36th Durban International Film
Festival (DIFF) and that was followed by a screening at the 34th annual Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF). It also showed at the 59th BFI London Film Festival, Britain’s leading film event and one of the world’s oldest film festivals as well as the 14th annual Cambridge African Film Festival (CAFF) which is the longest running African film festival in the United Kingdom.
DIS EK, ANNA
"Dis ek, Anna" is based on Anchien Troskie’s best-selling fictionalised biographical novels "Ek Anna" and "Die Staat ten Anna Bruwer". It is about the sexual abuse of Anna Bruwer by her stepfather over a period of eight years. She called herself 'Silent Anna' because she could not tell anyone what had happened between her and her stepfather. Not her mother, not her best friend and not even her own father. One night, successful businessman from Bloemfontein in South Africa, Danie du Toit's doorbell rings in the middle of the night. It's Anna and outside in the pouring rain, she pulls a gun on him. In the story, the viewer becomes intimately involved in the child's twilight world of shame, threats and silence.
The beautifully crafted, award -winning feature film is directed by Sara Blecher and stars Charlene Brouwer as the adult Anna Bruwer, newcomer Izel Bezuidenhout as the young Anna with Morne Visser as Danie du Toit as Anna’s stepfather. It also consists of a strong rounding cast ensemble including Marius Weyers, Nicola Hanekom, Drikus Volschenk, Eduan van Jaarsveldt, Hykie Berg, Elize Cawood, Dawid Minnaar, Ilse Klink, Elton Andrew and Fezile Mpela.
The film had its premiere at the Durban International Film Festival in July and scooped three top awards – Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor - at the 2015 Silwerskermfees. The film travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland at the end of October 2015 for The Africa in Motion Festival and then in early November 2015 the producers attended a seminar at the Royal African Society Film Festival in London where they discussed "Dis ek, Anna" and set up private screenings of the film. In December the film screened in Amsterdam as part of Post-Apartheid Cinema – A South African Focus before heading to the Palm Springs International Film Festival in California.
FOR LOVE AND BROKEN BONES
This original Mzansi Magic movie looks at the life of Motheo (Mduduzi Mabaso), a lonely, serious and ruthless debt collector who falls in love with a feisty and passionate wedding planner (Lerato Mvelase), who also happens to be his latest assignment. Can they both overcome their old fears and let love into their lives? And can he save her and her son in time, before his powerful and dangerous boss (Desmond Dube), comes to get his money back?
"For Love and Broken Bones" won the Portland Film Festival's Best Film award, and beat 220 entrants for the US independent festival's Jury Narrative Feature award. It was also selected to be screened at the esteemed New York City Independent Film Festival. Produced for Mzansi Magic by The Bomb Shelter, "For Love and Broken Bones" is directed by Tebogo Malope, based on his screenplay with storyteller Libby Dougherty.
This is Malope's first feature film, following the success of his documentary "The Pavement Bookworm". He is considered one of South Africa's rising creative talents, with a storytelling flair that may help to change the landscape of local filmmaking.
Credit: www.nfvf.co.za, IMDb, www.southafrica.info
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