Durban film fest a feast for the eyes

Film Festival PICTURE BONGANI MBATHA

Film Festival PICTURE BONGANI MBATHA

Published Jul 29, 2015

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AN ANTHOLOGY of short films, including some set in KZN and by local filmmakers, has been honoured with the Production Merit Award at the Durban International Film Festival (Diff).

Rights of Passage, a feature film comprising eight short fictional stories tied together by the theme Love and Loss in the Time of Mandela, was one of the winners at a ceremony to close the festival on Saturday.

The film provided a platform for first-time, young, black filmmakers born when Nelson Mandela became the first democratic president, to tell stories of the search for love, belonging and healing while navigating the rites turmoil in everyday life.

They are, Ntombizodwa Magagula, Mapula Sibanda, Lerato Moloi, Valencia Joshua, Zandile Angeline Wardle, Tony Miyambo, Rethabile Mothobi, Yashvir Bagwandeen.

They were mentored by producers Professor Bheki Peterson, Ramadan Suleman and Neville Josie of Natives at Large and Jungleworks, in partnership with the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa and the KZN Film Commission.

The Production Merit is a new award at Diff and comes with a R25 000 cash prize.

Ryley Grunenwald’s The Shore Break, about the prospective titanium mining on the Wild Coast, won the Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award for the film that best reflects human rights issues. The film also won the audience choice award.

Best Feature Film: Sunrise, directed by Partho Sen-Gupta

Best South African Feature Film: Necktie Youth. directed by Sibs Shongwe-La Mer

Best Direction: Sibs Shongwe-La Mer for Necktie Youth

Best Documentary: Beats of the Antonov, directed by Hajooj Kuka

Best SA Documentary:The Dream of the Shahrazad, directed by Francois Verster

Best Actor Award: Didier Michon in Fevers, directed by Hicham Ayouch

Best Actress: Anissa Daoud in Tunisian Spring, directed by Raja Amari

Best African Short Film: The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometre 375, directed by Omar el Zohairy

Best South African Short Film: Unomalanga and the Witch, directed by Palesa Shongwe

Production Merit Award: Rights of Passage, directed by Ntombizodwa Magagula, Mapula Sibanda, Lerato Moloi, Valencia Joshua, Zandile Angeline Wardle, Tony Miyambo, Rethabile Mothobi and Yashvir Bagwandeen

Best Screenplay: Sabrina Compeyron and David Constantin for Sugar Cane Shadows, directed by David Constantin

Best Cinematography: Jean-Marc Ferriere for Sunrise, directed by Partho Sen-Gupta

Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award: The Shore Break, directed by Ryley Grunenwald

Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Honorary Award: The Look of Silence directed by Joshua Oppenheimer

Artwatch Africa Award: Beats of the Antonov, directed by Hajooj Kuka

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