“To be awarded prizes by both juries is extremely encouraging,’ said director Oliver Hermanus after his Afrikaans language film, Skoonheid, won the Best South African Feature Film Award and the Jury Special Mention Prize at the recent Durban International Film Festival.
Hermanus is a previous winner of DIFF’s Best South African Feature Film Award with his debut feature, Shirley Adams.
“I am extremely proud to have been honoured in Durban again and I’m determined to gain immediate audience responses to the film when it releases on the South African circuit on 5 August at selected Ster-Kinekor cinemas,’ continued Hermanus.
Skoonheid (Beauty) tells the story of a repressed 45-year-old Afrikaner from Bloemfontein. The character Francois van Heerden has become devoid of any care or concern for his own measure of happiness, and so convinced of his ill-fated existence, that he is wholly unprepared when a chance encounter unravels his clean, controlled life.
The cast includes Deon Lotz, Charlie Keegan, Michelle Scott, Albert Maritz, Sue Diepeveen and Roeline Daneel.
Skoonheid is produced by Equation, in association with Moonlighting Films and was the first Afrikaans film to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section.
