AMAA calls for African entries

Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) recently announced that it is now calling for entries for the 2013 edition to be held in April next year. The deadline for submissions is 30 December 2012 and nominations will be announced in the first week of March.

Acceptable genres include feature length films, shorts and documentary entries. Only films produced, premiered and or released between December 2011 and November 2012 are eligible. Features may not exceed 120 minutes and shorts should not be longer than 40 minutes.

The AMAAs are an offshoot of the Africa Film Academy. The Academy, founded on the best film tradition, is geared towards research, training and propagating film making in Africa. Established in 2005, AMAA aims to facilitate the development and relevance of African film & cinema by providing a rewards & recognition platform for film makers on the continent. African film makers work hard with very little and have, not through serendipity but through sheer audacity, managed to build the 3rd largest film industry in the world, and are poised to take poll position, beating America and India.

Previous AMAA winners include How 2 Steal 2 Million (South Africa), Toussaint Louverture (Senegal/France), The Education of Auma Obama (Germany) and White Sugar In A Black Pot (USA).

 

Little One vies for Oscar

It has been reported that Director Darrell Roodt's latest film, "Little One", has been confirmed as South Africa's entry into the Best Foreign Film category for next year's Oscars. The announcement was made by the South African Academy Award Selection Committee and the National Film and Video Foundation.

"Yesterday", another film by Roodt, was nominated for an Oscar in 2005.If approved by the Oscars Academy Award Selection Committee, which makes its final selection of nominees in January, the film will represent South Africa at the 85th Annual Academy Awards in 2013.

Little One tells a story of a six-year-old girl (Vuyelwa Msimang), who is found left for dead on the dunes near a township in Johannesburg. She is found by a middle-aged woman, Pauline played by Lindiwe Ndlovu, who rushes her to hospital.

 Saving her life, it transpires that the little girl has been raped and her face beaten in so badly that she doesn't even look human anymore. The story then follows Pauline's journey as she becomes actively involved with the child's case, from going to the extreme of kidnapping the girl from the hospital after her unsuccessful attempt to adopt her, to conducting her own investigation into what happened to the little girl.

Submission deadline for SAFTAS 7 entries extended

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) has extended the closing date for the call for local production companies to submit their entries for the 7th annual South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs). The closing date has been extended to Thursday the 27th of September 2012 at 16h00 with a penalty fee of R350.00 per entry. The penalty fee will be payable for all the entries that will be received after the initial closing date which was the 20th of September 2012.

The SAFTAs, managed under the custodianship of the National Film and Video Foundation, are an industry initiative governed by the SAFTAS committee and the body of industry representatives comprising of the broadcasters, SASFED and other key stakeholders.

The basic guidelines for the eligibility of entries are as follows:

    For TV fiction, non-fiction, student films and TV animation, only South African films and television programmes that have been produced and publicly exhibited or broadcast between the 1st of August 2011 and the 12th of August 2012 are eligible to enter.

    For feature film and feature length animation, only South African films produced and publicly exhibited or broadcast between the 1st of January 2012 and the 31st of December 2012 are eligible to enter. Only productions that are entered will be eligible for consideration.

"We once again begin the most exciting journey in the film and television industry calendar. This is a time where the industry comes together with the aim of recognizing and celebrating the best of South African talent in film and television. As we commence this process leading to the industry's annual prestigious event, we call upon the industry to support every stage of the SAFTAs to ensure another successful event.

The SAFTAs have come a long way in the past six years and we look forward to working with the industry to grow the event further," says the NFVF CEO and SAFTAs Chairperson Zama Mkosi.

The SAFTAs has since its inception honoured individuals and productions in the following categories: TV Non-fiction, TV Fiction, Feature Films, Short Films, Student Films and Animation. The awards also honour the lifetime achievers with the Special Lifetime Achievement awards given to those esteemed individuals who have long served the industry in various categories.

This year the SAFTAS launches a new category called Best International Adaptations. This award will recognise the programmes originating from international formats. These would include shows like Survivor, SA Idols, So you think you can dance and SA's got Talents.

The system that the SAFTA Committee introduced last year of incorporating the previous SAFTA winners and nominees to the judging panels will be utilized again this year. This system was introduced with the aim of encouraging peer recognition within the industry and to ensure that there is transparency throughout the process.

As with the previous years, the public will also get the opportunity to vote for their Best Soapie.

For complete rules and guidelines of the SAFTAs, click here.

All the entries should be submitted through an online entry system which can be found on the SAFTA Entries website, click here to visit the SAFTA Entries website.

The new closing date for entries is Thursday the 27th of September 2012.

The glittering awards ceremony for the 7th annual SAFTAs will be held in March 2013 where all winners will be announced and will be presented with the official SAFTA trophy, the Golden Horn.