The CFC (Cape Film Commission) recently welcomed Bruce Paisner, president of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and Nathaniel Brendel, Emmy judging director in Cape Town. Paisner and Brendel were here at the invitation of the CFC’s CEO Denis Lillie who also hosted the two semi-final rounds of judging sessions.
The International Emmys are the most important television awards for the international television community and recognise excellence in this field for all television productions outside of the USA.
The categories judged were Current Affairs and Arts Programming. Sixteen members of the CFC were chosen as judges from 40 nominations. The International Emmys are open to any television programme produced and broadcast in the previous year outside of the USA.
It was clear from the programmes viewed this year that the quality of content being produced in South Africa is as good as, if not better, than other programming around the world. The CFC would therefore encourage local content producers to submit programmes for the competition later this year when the call for entries is announced.
The proceedings for the Cape Town hosting came to a close at a dinner hosted by the CFC at the Five Rooms Restaurant at the Alphen Hotel. Paisner and Brendel were in attendance, Alderman Felicity Purchase represented the City of Cape Town and representatives of the CFC membership, some of whom are members of the International Emmys, including Roberta Durrant of Penguin Films who is the current SA Ambassador for the Academy.
Lillie commented that this was the second time the CFC had hosted a judging session in Cape Town. “This year we had the luxury of having president Bruce Paisner joining us. As well as meeting our local television- and filmmakers, we took Bruce and Nathaniel for a tour of the Cape Town Studios where we met with CEO Nico Dekker.
“Bruce commented on how impressed he was with the facility, especially the sets for the pirate adventure series Black Sails currently being shot there. We also discussed in-depth plans with Bruce for other International Emmy events to be hosted in Cape Town over the coming years. We view this as an extremely important partnership for the development and growth of the television industry in and around Cape Town.’
