The TEDDY Awards will celebrate its 25th anniversary as part of the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. This year the festival has selected Pieter-Dirk Uys to receive the Special TEDDY Award in Berlin for his outstanding lifetime achievements.
More than 3 000 guests from the arts, culture, economic and political sectors will attend the festive Gala where the TEDDY Awards will be given to various recipients. Former winners include film-makers Pedro Almodovar, Gus van Sant and Derek Jarman, as well as acclaimed performers Helmut Berger, John Hurt and Tilda Swinton.
This year’s Special TEDDY Award will be presented on 18 February and will go to South African entertainer and HIV/AIDS activist Pieter-Dirk Uys, for his commitment to AIDS education at South African schools and for his on-stage alter ego Evita Bezuidenhout, the Most Famous White Woman in South Africa, as she was called by Nelson Mandela.
In 2008 the acclaimed documentary by Julian Shaw about Uys’work “Darling: the Pieter-Dirk Uys Story” was presented with the Panorama Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Evita herself made a legendary appearance at the TEDDY Award Ceremony that is televised across Europe.
On Sunday 20 February at 16h00, Uys will also give one performance of his show Desperate First Ladies at the Jewish Museum in Berlin where his late mother’s piano is kept. In this performance he celebrates his Jewish heritage, his Afrikaner legacy and his fantastic legs. He will seek to remind the audience that a patriot can also be someone who protects his country from its government.
