On 9 and 10 March at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, the finest work in South Africa’s film and television industry will be awarded at the 6th annual SAFTAS.
Leading the drama genre categories of the 2012 South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAS) with 23 nominations is Intersexions, the popular SABC1 drama series. Its storyline is based on the HIV/AIDS infection chain in society through the interconnectedness of people’s sexual networks.
Another SABC1 drama series that features prominently in the drama genre categories is Sokhulu & Partners with 10 nominations.
In the soap genre categories, Scandal and Rhythm City received seven nominations each while Isidingo and Generations have four and three nominations respectively.
The public gets the opportunity to vote for its favourite soap in the Best TV Soap category. This award will see all participating soapies competiting for the SAFTAS Golden Horn Trophy, namely Generations, Isidingo, Rhythm City, Scandal! Muvhango and The Wild. 7 de Laan did not receive a nomination into this category as the soapie was not entered for the SAFTAS.
“The SAFTAS are our industry’s premier accolade platform, awarding the best talent both on and off screen for all genres of film and television programming. This is fundamentally a competition, entry into which is compulsory for consideration by the judges via the judging process. The public vote is part of the SAFTAS judging process, as the public are the judge and jury for the Best TV Soap award. Therefore, only those programmes that submit entries during the specified period are eligible to compete. 7de Laan did not enter for competition and therefore cannot compete in the public vote.
“Contrary to some media reports, 7de Laan, was not excluded from the SAFTAS,’ said Eddie Mbalo, SAFTAS Committee chairperson, at the nominees function held in Johannesburg on 16 February.
The feature film category is led by Black Butterflies with nine nominations. Skoonheid, Retribution and Roepman have six nominations each. Retribution’s Jeremy Crutchley and Joe Mafela are both nominated for Best Actor, together with Fana Mokoena for State of Violence and Deon Lotz for Skoonheid.
For the Best Actress in a feature category, there are no nominations. The performance judging panel had this to say: “We regret to announce that there will be no award in the Best Actress in a Feature Film category this year. This is because the 10 films that made it through filtration were predominantly male-driven stories. Only two actresses were listed as Lead Actress, one of whom was not eligible for a SAFTA as she is not South African. These circumstances render an award for Best Actress in a Feature Film meaningless and the judges unanimously decided not make the award this year.
“This is a far from desirable situation, and the panel urges writers and production companies to bear in mind that as an industry we need to tell more stories that provide a platform for the luminous female talent our country has to offer.’
Run under the custodianship of the National Film and Video Foundation, the main objectives of the SAFTAS are to honour, celebrate and promote the creativity, quality and excellence of local film and television talent, and encourage entrepreneurship and development of new talent in the industry.
