Martie Bester

British actress Naomie Harris, who plays the role of Winnie Mandela in South African producer Anant Singh’s film, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, has received two nominations for the 34th London Critics Circle Film Awards.

Harris has been nominated as Supporting Actress of the Year and British Actress of the Year for her portrayal as late President Nelson Mandela’s second wife.

The London Critics’ Circle Film Awards are voted for by the UK’s longest standing and most prestigious critical organisation and the winners will be announced on 2 February 2014.

Said Singh: “We congratulate Naomie on receiving these two nominations from the UK’s foremost organisation of film critics. This is really a massive achievement, well-deserved and very exciting.’

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom received three Golden Globe Nominations for Idris Elba as Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his role as Nelson Mandela; Alex Heffes for Best Original Score and U2 for the Best Original Song with Ordinary Love, which was written especially for the film.

Ordinary Love has also received a Critics’ Choice Award nomination for Best Song.

The film screens nationwide in South Africa through UIP.

The New Generation Social and Media Digital Awards recognised the Ster-Kinekor App by awarding the company and its digital agency, Prezence, with Gold in the Most Innovative App category.

From Social Media to Crisis Communication, the New Generation Social and Media Digital awards included 40 categories aimed at reflecting the scope of social & digital communication.

“We believe that the success of our App and its continued popularity is the result of its constant redevelopment and evolvement as new operating systems and handsets are introduced to the market,’ says Doug Place, marketing executive of Ster-Kinekor Theatres.

The App recorded its millionth download earlier this year. Accessible and user-friendly, the App is one of only a handful that caters for all operating systems and makes of handsets. A version for Windows phones will shortly be launched.

To ensure that the App maintains its high ranking among its users, Ster-Kinekor has worked closely with Prezence.

Adds Place: “The positive reaction to our App is extremely encouraging and is testament to its usability. More and more consumers are using this facility not only to browse what’s on, but also to book seats for the latest releases, and to share movie information with their friends on Facebook and Twitter.

“Receiving this Gold award for innovation is extremely satisfying and can be added to a number of other industry awards we have received for the apps.’

Download the Ster-Kinekor App on any Nokia, Samsung Android, iPhone or BlackBerry smart phone for the latest information and to make bookings.

For everything movie-related, visit www.sterkinekor.com.

BREAKING NEWS: U2’s tribute song to the late Nelson Mandela, Ordinary Love, from the movie Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, is eligible for an Oscar. The announcement was made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Five of the 75 songs which qualified will become the nominations after members of the music branch vote in order of preference. Voters look at clips of the song use.

The nominations will be announced on 16 January.

In news just in, Ordinary Love has been nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award in the Best Song category.

The 10th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) came to a close on 14 December 2013, after more than a week of celebrating new and exciting films from the Arab world, Asia, Africa and further afield.

Directed by Waleed Zuaiter, Palestinian movie Omar won Best Film under the category Muhr Arab Feature; Irrfan Khan won Best Actor for his role in The Lunchbox directed by Ritesh Batra; while the film also won the writer / director special mention for screenplay in the Muhr Asia Africa category.

Sandeep Ray’s Shirno Bahu (Thin Arms) won the Best Director award in the Muhr Asia Africa shorts category. The 10-minute film is in Bengali language.

Full list of awards at DIFF

Muhr AsiaAfrica Feature
Special Mention: Souleymane Deme for his role in Grigris (France, Chad)
Special Mention: Ritesh Batra for the screenplay of The Lunchbox
Best Actress: Yeo Yann Yann, Ilo Ilo (Singapore)
Best Actor: Irrfan Khan, The Lunchbox (France, Germany, India)
Best Director: Tsai Ming Liang, Stray Dogs (Taiwan, France)
Special Jury Prize: Sepehr Seifi, Fish & Cat (Iran)
Best Film: Ang Hwee Sim, Anthony Chen, Wahyuni A. Hadi, Ilo Ilo (Singapore)

Muhr AsiaAfrica Documentary
Special Mention: Lynn Lee and James Leong, Wukan: The Flame of Democracy (Singapore)
Best Director: Pin Pin Tan, To Singapore With Love (Singapore)
Special Jury Prize: Sara Rastegar, My Red Shoes (France)
Best Film: Yoshiko Hashimoto and Shigeki Kinoshita, The Horses of Fukushima (Japan)

Muhr AsiaAfrica Short
Special Mention: Cedric Ido, Twaaga (Burkina Faso, France)
Best Director: Sandeep Ray, Thin Arms (India)
Special Jury Prize: Halla Kim, The Way Back (South Korea)
Best Film: Askhat Kuchinchirekov, Gas Is Over (Kazakhstan)

Muhr Arab Feature
Special Mention: Mohammed Amin Benamraoui, Adios Carmen (Morocco, Belgium, UAE)
Special Mention: Raouia for her roles in Rock, The Casbah and Pillow Secrets
Best Actress: Yasmine Raees, Factory Girl (Egypt, UAE)
Best Actor: Hassan Badida, They Are the Dogs (Morocco)
Best Director: Hany Abu Assad, Omar (Palestine, UAE)
Special Jury Prize: Nabil Ayouch, They Are the Dogs (Morocco)
Best Film: Waleed Zuaiter, Omar (Palestine, UAE)

Muhr Arab Documentary
Special Mention: Zeina Daccache for Scheherazade’s Diary (Lebanon)
Best Director: Salma El Tarzi, Underground on the Surface (Egypt)
Special Jury Prize: Diala Kachmar and Carole Abboud, Guardians of Lost Time (Lebanon, UAE)
Best Film: Karim Amer, The Square (US, Egypt)

Muhr Arab Short
Special Mention: Camille Salameh for his role in Troubled Waters (Lebanon)
Special Mention: Ahmed Yassin, Children of God (Iraq, UK, Hungary)
Best Director: Ali Cherri, The Disquiet (Lebanon, France)
Special Jury Prize: Haider Rashid, The Deep (Iraq, Italy)
Best Film: Bavi Yassin, Nore Maatala, The Lost Voice (Belgium, Iraq)

Muhr Emirati
Special Mention: Mohammad Fikree, Girl & It (UAE)
Best Director: Muna Al Ali, Concealment (UAE)
Special Jury Prize: Claudia Corbelli and Greg White, The Neighbour (UAE)
Best Film: Abdullah Hasan Ahmed and Khalid Al Mahmood, Don’t Leave Me (UAE)

FIPRESCI
Short: Ahmed Yassin, Children of God (Iraq, UK, Hungary)
Documentary: Zeina Daccache, Scheherazade’s Diary (Lebanon)
Feature: Mohammed Khan, Factory Girl (Egypt, UAE)
Emirates NBD People’s Choice Award
Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Frozen (US)
Amal Al-Agroobi, The Brain That Sings (UAE)

Conquering Lion Pictures, Out Of Africa Entertainment and leading independent studio Entertainment One (eOne) announce the epic mini-series adaptation of The Book of Negroes, based on the Commonwealth Writers’ prize-winning novel by Lawrence Hill (published in the US, Australia and New Zealand as Someone Knows My Name). Production will begin in South Africa later this year and the series will air on CBC in Canada and BET in the US.

The mini-series is written by multiple-award winning filmmaker Clement Virgo (The Wire, Poor Boy’s Game) and co-written by Lawrence Hill. The Book of Negroes will be directed by Clement Virgo.

The Book of Negroes depicts the extraordinary life journey of Aminata Diallo – a resolute African woman who triumps in a world that is predisposed to underestimate her. Kidnapped by slave traders in West Africa and subsequently enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata must navigate her way through the American Revolution in New York, the isolated refuge of Nova Scotia and the jungles of Sierra Leone, before ultimately securing her freedom in England at the dawn of the 19th century.

“Lawrence Hill has given us a gift with his novel The Book of Negroes and I’m now thrilled to be able to convey the exhilaration I felt on first reading it into an exciting cinematic experience for a worldwide audience,” says Virgo.

“Reminiscent of the classic TV series Roots, The Book of Negroes depicts a universal narrative about love, loss, and human survival against a critical moment in history which affected the social fabric of the US, Canada and the UK,” comments executive producer Lance Samuels.

Loretha Jones, president of orginal programming, BET Networks mentions: “We are excited to partner with Conquering Lion Pictures, Out of Africa Entertainment and Entertainment One on this historic project and to bring the acclaimed Book of Negroes to life for the BET audience.’

The Book of Negroes is an official Canada-South Africa co-production, executive produced by Damon D’Oliveira (Poor Boy’s Game, Lie with Me) along with Clement Virgo from Conquering Lion Pictures.

Other executive producers include Lance Samuels (Inescapable, Bang Bang Club), Daniel Iron (Cairo Time, Away from Her), Michael Levine (The Republic of Doyle), eOne’s Carrie Stein (Coco Chanel, Burn Up, Diamonds) and Bill Niven (Marion Bridge) of Idlewild Films serving as the Nova Scotia co-producer.

eOne handles the worldwide rights to the mini-series in all media. The Book of Negroes will be produced in association with Canadian Broadcasting Company and Black Entertainment Television.

The Cape Town-based premier film financing, development and production company, Light & Dark Films hosted an International Emmy Awards semi-final round of judging in Johannesburg on 10 June 2013.

Every year the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences gives its members from across the globe the opportunity to host jury events for the semi-final round of judging in specific categories.

“I have found the experience of being an Emmy juror for the past six years to be very rewarding in terms of exposing me to trends in global television. It’s a great privilege to take a day out of the office to watch the best programming from around the world and then to benchmark what we are doing against that,’ says Zaheer Goodman-Bhyat, long-time academy member and CEO of Light & Dark Films.

He played host to the International Academy in Johannesburg and invited qualified jurors to participate in judging this year’s round in the category Best Performance by An Actor.

The event was held at the NFVF’s (National Film and Video Foundation) screening room in Houghton, Johannesburg. Jurors were chosen based on their relevant qualifications and resumes for the category.

The judging panel comprised of experienced producers Zaheer Goodman-Bhyat (LNDF) and Sallas de Jager (Bosbokses Films), highly acclaimed actors Gys de Villiers, Anel Alexander and Kim Engelbrecht, award-winning television director, Amanda Lane, casting directors Christa Schamberger and Bonnie Lee Bouman and local television channel executives, Evert van der Veer (channel head at Comedy Central), Tim Horwood (channel director at Viacom International Africa) and Henrietta Gryffenberg (content executive and supervising producer at kykNET).

Emmy judging director, Nathaniel Brendel, who attended the event, hailed it as highly successful. Jurors also expressed great pleasure at the opportunity to view and assess content from foreign territories alongside other respected members of the television community.

The 41st International Emmy Awards Gala takes place in New York on 25 November 2013.