Martie Bester

Adding to its many worldwide accolades, South African director Roberta Durrant’s feel-good movie Felix has won three more awards at international film festivals.

Since it started showing on the festival circuit in October 2013, Felix has won 13 awards locally and internationally.

Felix won the youth jury prize for best film at the Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth in Vancouver, Canada; the best film award at the Kikife International Children’s Film Festival in Schwabisch Gmund in Germany; and the adult jury prize for best picture at Germany’s Augsburg Children’s Film Festival.

Aged between nine and 12, a representative of the Canadian youth jury said they voted for the film because it showed happy people working together to achieve a good end-goal. Another juror said the film is “really engaging, it made you share his hopes along the way. I liked getting a window into current South African culture and the way Felix never gave up’.

The Augsberg Children’s Film Festival ran from 31 March to 13 April and director Roberta Durrant and actor Hlayani Mabasa, who plays the role of Felix, travelled to Germany to receive Die Goldene Klappe Award for best picture by an adult jury. They were guests of honour at the launch of the festival, which opened with a screening of the movie.

Written by Shirley Johnston, who recently won the Writers’ Guild of South Africa’s Muse Award for best script, Felix is currently in competition at the Toronto International Film Festival for Kids, which runs until 21 April.

The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), which takes place from 15 May to 8 June, has revealed the selection of films from and about Africa as part of its African Pictures programme.

This year’s line-up includes the world premiere of South African film Leading Lady by Henk Pretorius who was also at the helm of Fanie Fourie’s Lobola, which won the Audience Award at SIFF 2013.

South African director Ian Gabriel’s Four Corners makes its North American debut at SIFF this year.

The following African Pictures titles will screen at SIFF 2014:

African Metropolis
Directors: Marie Ka, Philippe Lacote, Ahmed Ghoneimy, Vincent Moloi, Folsakin Iwajomo, Jim Chuchu from Kenya, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Senegal, Nigeria and South Africa, 2013, 92 min

Through innovative short stories featuring six developing major cities namely Abidjan, Cairo, Dakar, Johannesburg, Lagos and Nairobi, filmmakers from across the African continent paint a vivid picture of a new, urbanised Africa in African Metropolis.

B For Boy
Directed Chika Anadu, Nigeria 2013, 118 min

Amaka, a 40-year-old Nigerian woman is expected to produce a male heir in Chika Anadu’s award-winning debut film. After her baby dies in utero, she desperately tries and finds a solution that will stop her husband from taking a second wife.

Difret
Directed by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, Ethiopia 2014, 99 min

Based on a true story, 14-year-old Aberash shoots and kills her attacker in an act of self-defence after being beaten, assaulted, and kidnapped. This act pits her and her determined lawyer against Ethiopia’s long-standing tradition of marriage by abduction.

Electro Chaabi
Directed by Hind Meddeb, Egypt / France 2013, 77 min

Now among Egypt’s fastest rising stars, Electro Chaabi started as performers in the poorest neighborhoods of Cairo. Their exhilarating version of Arab hip hop has thrived across social classes to become the inspirational soundtrack to a difficult time.

Finding Fela
Directed by Alex Gibney, USA 2014, 120 min

Through historic clips and scenes from the Broadway musical FELA! Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti’s life’s work is portrayed as well as its social and political significance.

Four Corners
North American Premiere
Directed by Ian Gabriel, South Africa 2014, 114 min

Just as the father he has never known is released from prison, 13-year-old chess prodigy Ricardo gets caught between two long-warring gangs, the 26s and the 28s of the merciless Cape Flats of South Africa.

Half of a Yellow Sun
Directed by Biyi Bandele, Nigeria / United Kingdom 2013, 106 min

Half of a Yellow Sun, based on the novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, follows the lives of two Nigerian sisters in the 1960s who return home after receiving educations in England with the Nigerian Civil War as its backdrop.

Leading Lady
World Premiere
Directed by Henk Pretorius, South Africa 2014, 96 min

An uplifting tale of a teacher and a struggling actress who enlists the help of a South African sheep farmer to assist her in preparing for the film role of a lifetime.

Rags and Tatters
Directed by Ahmad Abdalla, Egypt 2013, 87 min

In Rags and Tatters, a nameless fugitive fights his way through the chaos of revolutionary Cairo to deliver cell phone footage of police brutality from his dying friend to the outside world.

The Rooftops
Directed by Merzak Allouache, Algeria / France 2013, 92 min

Allouache weaves the story of five Algiers neighbourhoods organised according to the five calls to prayer over the course of one day.

Salvation Army
Directed by Abdellah Taia, Morocco / France 2013, 82 min

The film, inspired by Taia own experiences, tells the journey of a gay Moroccan teenager who uses his sexuality to advance his position in, and ultimately escape, the society that rejects him.

Under the Starry Sky
Directed by Dyana Gaye, France / Senegal 2013, 86 min

Three emotionally charged story lines take viewers from Senegal to Italy to America and back again. In this richly realised examination of the African diaspora, the destinies of three far-flung sojourners connect. T

White Shadow
Directed by Noaz Deshe, Germany / Italy / Tanzania 2013, 115 min

Young albino Alias is on the run after witnessing his father’s murder in Tanzania. In this intense and stunning feature debut, Alias finds city life as fraught with danger in this film centred on crime perpetrated because of superstition.

The Kenya Film Commission (KFC) has announced an extension of the deadline for entries for the 5th Kalasha Film and TV Awards 2014 to 24 April.

“KFC wants to make sure that no filmmaker is left behind to be part of this ultimate gala award ceremony, our very own Kenyan Oscars,’ says Caroline Kittur, acting CEO of KFC. “This inspiring event will be held on 28 June at the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi.’

Over the past financial year, KFC has led activities that include workshops in Mlolongo, Lamu, Kisii, Nairobi, Nyeri and Kwale during which more than 400 people were trained in film directing and production, scriptwriting, cinematography, lighting and sound, and acting.

The Kalasha Film and TV Awards allow Kenyans to celebrate their cultural diversity through film and to recognise the role of film in economic sustainability.

The 2014 MTV Movie Awards took place on 13 April at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles with talk show king Conan O’Brien hosting the event.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire won Movie of the Year, while Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson took home the accoloades for Best Female Performance and Best Male Performance for the same film.


Different from other events, film audiences vote for their favourite movies and actors for the MTV Movie Awards, which saw Mark Wahlberg and Channing Tatum honoured on the night with the Generation and Trailblazer Awards respectively.


A special tribute was held for actor Paul Walker who died in a car accident in November last year.


Watch the pan-African primetime premiere on Monday 14 April on MTV (DStv Channel 130) or MTV Base (DStv Channel 322) at 21h00 CAT.


The complete list of winners as voted for by the fans


Movie of the Year

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lionsgate)


Best Fight

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Warner Bros. Pictures): Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly vs Orcs


Best Female Performance

Jennifer Lawrence for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lionsgate)


Best Male Performance

Josh Hutcherson for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lionsgate)


Best Kiss

Emma Roberts, Jennifer Aniston and Will Poulter for We’re the Millers (New Line Cinema)


Best Shirtless Performance

Zac Efron for That Awkward Moment (Focus Features)


Best Villain

Mila Kunis for Oz The Great and Powerful (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)


Best Comedic Performance

Jonah Hill for The Wolf of Wall Street (Paramount Pictures)


Best On-Screen Transformation

Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club (Focus Features)


Breakthrough Performance

Will Poulter for We’re the Millers (New Line Cinema)


Best Scared-as-S**t Performance

Brad Pitt for World War Z (Paramount Pictures)


Best On-Screen Duo

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker for Fast & Furious 6 (Universal Pictures)


#WTF Moment

Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street (Paramount Pictures)

DiCaprio’s portrayal of excessive Wall Street player Jordan Belfort taking his Lamborghini for a spin


Best Musical Moment

Backstreet Boys, Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen and Craig Robinson for This is the End (Columbia Pictures)


Best Cameo Performance

Rihanna for This is the End (Columbia Pictures)


Best Hero

Henry Cavill as Clark Kent in Man of Steel (Warner Bros. Pictures)


For more information on the 2014 MTV Movie Awards go to www.mtv.co.za.

Noted filmmakers and conservationists Beverly and Dereck Joubert received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the recent South African Film and Television Awards held at Gallagher Estate in Midrand on 5 April.

Pioneers in African conservation, the world-renowned couple were honoured for the contribution to and development of South Africa’s flourishing film industry.

“We thank you for this award, it gives us a platform to talk about the things we care about,’ said Dereck in his acceptance speech. “Beverly and I are truly “children of Africa’, Bana Ba Naga, children of the bush.’

He continued, “We have this amazing common currency in Africa that is invaluable because it is a currency of the heart and soul. So it hurts us to see this being plundered from the East, for rhino horn and ivory and used as a playground by colonial hunters from the West.’

Dereck said that Africa loses a rhino every nine hours, five lions a day and five elephants every hour of the day. “This is an African problem and we’ve dedicated our lives to fix it, but we will only be able to do it with African solutions. We have hope and confidence that we can do this together because we are all Bana ba Naga Ban aba Afrika,’ he concluded.

The Jouberts have produced films in Southern Africa for the 30 years, many of which have raised awareness of the plight of the Big Cats and other iconic species that are under severe threat. One of the Jouberts’ early films, Eternal Enemies, has been seen by more than one billion people globally.

Their 2011 movie The Last Lions was filmed in Botswana and has since become a powerful ambassador for critically endangered lions. In less than a year the film reached over 350 million people and continues receiving a variety of international awards.

The leopard Legadema that features in the Jouberts’ Eye of the Leopard (2006) has become a global ambassador for leopards while drawing attention to the fur industry, which is destroying their numbers.

The Jouberts, as National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence, have also founded the Big Cats Initiative with National Geographic to further protect all of the big cats worldwide through on-the-ground projects, research, education and ongoing awareness campaigns.

Through Great Plains Conservation, Beverly and Dereck continue to champion Africa’s wildlife and habitat.

Visit www.wildlifefilms.co for more information on the films and photography of Dereck and Beverly Joubert.

For further information, visit www.greatplainsconservation.com.