Feel-good South African family film, Felix, has been selected for the 57th British Film Institute’s London Film Festival that screens from 9 to 20 October.
Says director Roberta Durant: “The programmer saw Felix at Durban International Film Festival, where we won the Audience Award for Best Film, and called me about the wonderful audience response. Being selected for Britain’s premier film festival is a huge honour and hopefully we’ll be able to announce a cinema release in London soon.”
Felix has also been selected for the Vancouver International Film Festival in Canada and the Lucas International Children’s Film Festival and The Hamburg FilmFest, both in Germany. Durant has been invited to all four festivals.
Durant, who is a South African Film and Television Award Lifetime Achievement (SAFTA) winner, was creative producer on the International Emmy-nominated TV series Home Affairs, Stokvel and Sokhulu & Partners.
Felix is the first feature film script she has chosen to direct.
Shirley Johnston’s screenplay won Sithengi’s Writer’s Forum Award; was a finalist in the US Spec Scriptacular Competition; and reached the quarterfinals of both Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest and the Moondance Screenwriting Competition.
Felix is the most female-empowered film since South Africa’s democracy, with a female director (Durant), writer (Johnston), editor (Maryke Kruger), cinematographer (Natalie Haarhoff), line producer (Kate Schalk), art director (Surisa Surisa), wardrobe stylist (Ayesha Khatieb) and hair and make-up artist (Islyn Goliath).
It’s the first film fully financed by Sabido Productions, the production arm of Sabido Investments, a South African media group with holdings in a variety of broadcasting, content and production businesses, including e.tv, e.Sat, YFM and Cape Town Film Studios.
Felix is also the first South African feature film for Johannesburg-born Oscar nominee Dame Janet Suzman; the first film for South African Film and Television Award (SAFTA) Best Actress winner Linda Sokhulu (Isidingo); and the first lead for Hlayani Junior Mabasa, cast in the title role from over 500 auditions across South Africa. Fleur du Cap winners André Jacobs and Nicholas Ellenbogen co-star.
Murray Anderson, musical director, who has recorded Gold and Platinum records for the likes of Abdullah Ibrahim, worked closely on the jazz soundtrack with former Standard Bank Young Artists of The Year Mark Fransman and Bokani Dyer, as well as triple 2012 South African Music Awards nominee Lwanda Gogwana.
Until 13 September 2013, to celebrate the release date, Felix is giving away four songs from the soundtrack, including a remix by The Kalahari Surfers, at http://soundcloud.com/felixthemovie.
Felix is a Penguin Films production for Sabido Productions and is distributed by Crystal Brook Distribution. The movie screens in 40 cinemas across Southern Africa from 13 September.
Watch and embed the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XC2YXTxuhQ.
Visit http://www.felixthemovie.com for more information.
