SundanceTV has announced the winner of the first SundanceTV Shorts Competition for South Africa. The winner of the Jury Prize is Good Mourning by Cape Town-based filmmaker Ian Morgan, who wins a trip for two to the premiere of his film at an event at Sundance Film Festival: London which takes place from 31 May to 3 June 2018. Good Mourning will also be broadcast on SundanceTV (DStv channel 108) later this year. SundanceTV was joined by MultiChoice as an exclusive partner for the competition.
Good Mourning is a dark comedy about Ted, a professional mourner, who loves his job to death. However, one day he is challenged by a disbeliever, Sandrine, who questions his morals and ethical standpoint and the conversation takes an unlikely turn. To watch Morgan’s short film click HERE.
“The SundanceTV Shorts Competition offers a unique platform to showcase the creativity of emerging filmmakers,” said Victoria Spitalieri, marketing director, AMC Networks International. “We’re incredibly excited to broadcast Ian Morgan’s film on SundanceTV Global later this year as well as to premiere Good Mourning at an event during the upcoming Sundance Film Festival: London. We’d like to thank all of the South African filmmakers who submitted entries as well as our partners who generously supported this exciting initiative.”
Commenting on the film, Mike Plante, senior programmer for the Sundance Film Festival and president of the competition jury said: “Good Mourning is funny and compelling yet unexpectedly poignant. It makes great use of a very creative story idea and a pair of immediately engaging characters.”
Submissions to the 2018 SundanceTV Shorts Competition were made from 1 March to 15 April on the website. Entries had to be submitted by the producer or director of the film who could provide proof of residency in South Africa. Films had to be no longer than 15 minutes and needed to be delivered with English subtitles if English was not the language spoken in the film. Entries had to meet SundanceTV’s official rules and technical requirements.
The Jury Prize was judged on a number of criteria, including creativity, entertainment value, original storytelling and production values. The jury, presided by Mike Plante of Sundance Institute, included Harold Gronenthal from SundanceTV Global; Aletta Alberts, executive head, Content and 3rd Party Channels at MultiChoice; and Helen Kuun of Indigenous Film.
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