After bagging the Queer Palm Award at the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival, Skoonheid has been selected to contest in the Best Foreign category of the 84th Annual Academy Awards.
Peter Goldsmid, South African Academy Selection Committee spokesman, said the film stood out as a representation of good South African film-making.
“Our decision was unanimous. Skoonheid was by far the best film; it held the audience, it had a protagonist with real internal conflict, it had a strong structure, it is a compelling, assured piece of work by a confident director with a distinctive vision and point of view.
“What also stood out were excellent performances and the assured realisation of the world of the story. It clearly met these universal criteria.”
The South African Academy Selection Committee under the patronage of the National Film and Video Foundation selected the film as an official entry into the Best Foreign Film category and if selected by the Oscars Academy Award Selection Committee it would be South Africa’s third film to participate in the category.
Last year’s contestant Life above All made it to the Top 9 and it is anticipated that Skoonheid will emulate Tsotsi, which won the award in 2006.
“The international success of the film demonstrates that although not an English language film, it is a film that resonates and appeals to the larger global market,” says Azania Muendane, head of marketing and public affairs.
Directed by Oliver Hermanus, Skoonheid tells the story of a man who is the product of apartheid. Raised within the confines of conservatism, Francois van Heerden carefully constructs his life to achieve societal approval, but experiences a sterile existence that fills him with profound regret and the conviction that his is a wasted life.
The first co-production film under the South Africa/France co-production treaty, Skoonheid was the first Afrikaans film to be selected for the Cannes International Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section.
News from Canada, where the film was screening in the Official Selection of the Toronto International Film Festival 2011, was that the film had secured an American distribution deal with TLA Releasing. Channel24 also reported that the film was sold to the territory of Poland.
l See www.nfvf.co.za - Cape Times