Nominations for the 2015 International Emmy Awards were announced by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at Mipcom. There are 40 nominees across 10 categories and 19 countries, with South Africa garnering three nominations for MasterChef South Africa, Puppet Nation ZA and Miners Shot Down. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on 23 November 2015 at the Hilton New York Hotel.
MasterChef South Africa Season 3, produced by Lucky Bean Media and Quizzical Pictures and featured on M-net (DStv 101), was nominated in the Non-scripted Entertainment category and is up against the UK’s 50 Ways to Kill your Mammy, Argentina’s Barones de la Cerveza and Belgium’s Flying Doctors. The show was previously nominated in the same category in 2013 and received a South African Film and Television Award (SAFTA) nomination in both 2013 and 2014 for the Best International Format Show.
In the Comedy category Canada’s Sensitive Skin, Columbia’s Familia en Venta, France’s Fais Pas Ci, Fais Pas Ca and Brazil’s Doce de Mae will compete with Puppet Nation ZA. Produced by Both Worlds and featuring on StarSat (Star One), the satirical news programme has received a number of awards since its creation in 2008 including seven SAFTAs in 2015.
Austrian documentary Africa’s Wild West – Stallions of the Namib Desert; Mexican documentary Antes de que Nos Olviden; and UK documentary Growing Up Down’s are nominated alongside Uhuru Productions’ Miners Shot Down. Rehad Desai’s Marikana documentary has earned international recognition at a number of notable festivals such as the One World Human Rights Film Festival where it won the Vaclav Havel Jury Award in 2014; and the Movies that Matter Festival where it won the Camera Justitia Award in 2014. In 2015 the film took the Best Documentary Award at both the SAFTAs and the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO).
Previous South African nominations include Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola which was nominated in the Comedy category in 2013 and 2014.
