The winners of South African pay-TV broadcaster M-Net’s EDiT Awards were recently announced in Johannesburg. EDiT is a learner-based initiative created to provide emerging film and television talent with genuine production opportunities within a “real world” television environment.
EDiT is open to students at tertiary institutions who are in their final year of study or post graduates, as well aspiring filmmakers as who are doing their apprenticeship or who are interns at production companies. Out of numerous proposals submitted,
M-Net selected eight projects each of which were awarded R40 000 to produce their programming. It is from these completed films that the EDiT winners were chosen.
WINNERS:
PROFESSIONAL CATEGORY: D’urban Designers, Jonathan Caramanus (Durban Institute of Technology)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Brownwyn Apfel, Ntshi (The Fly), (Damelin College Centurion)
BEST SOUND DESIGN: 1. Anthony Haenen, Still Moving (Wits School of Art Television); 2. Herman Verwey, Bloedrooi (Tshwane University of Technology Motion Picture Academy)
BEST WRITER: Brian Wallace, Hot Report (University of Kwazulu-Natal)
BEST DIRECTOR: Quintin Wiehahn, Bloedrooi (Tshwane University of Technology Motion Picture Academy)
BEST PROJECT: Luke Carstens, Still Moving (Wits School of Arts Television)
SPECIAL MENTION: OUTSTANDING ACTING: The Record. Produced by Scott Kearney (Wits School of Arts Television)
SUB-HEADING: EDiT Online competition
Meanwhile, as previously reported on the Screen Africa website, EDiT this year includes the addition of an Online component. Aspiring filmmakers have been entering their original short films from 1 April 2006 onwards.
Successful entrants, whose short films are accepted for exhibition on www.mnet.co.za will be notified by 30 June 2006. The films will go live online on 1 July 2006, so people can log on and view the cream of the entries. They will then be able to vote online, determining which films will be broadcast on M-Net in October 2006.
Viewers can then vote online or telephonically, determining the top three films, which will receive their awards in early 2007. The top three films will be awarded R50 000, R25 000 and R15 000 respectively.
Only original short films that are ready for broadcast will be considered, and they must have rights cleared (including worldwide broadband). There is no minimum duration for the films, but they should not be longer than 30 minutes. Only films accompanied by an application form (release) will be considered.
Eligibile formats for exhibition include Beta SP (only Pal), DVD or DVCam. The deadline for entries is 30 June.
FILM/MATERIAL MUST BE SENT TO:
The EDiT Online Film Festival
Attention: Henriette de Villers
M-Net
137 Hendrik Verwoerd Drive
Randburg
2194
Gauteng
