Joburg Film Festival honors it

Photo; Twitter/MultiChoiceGRP

Joburg Film Festival honors its finest films at Awards Gala

The Joburg Film Festival recently recognised the ‘finest work’ on display at this year’s Festival, including Best Film and Best African Film.

Joburg Film Festival honors it

Photo; Twitter/MultiChoiceGRP

The Joburg Film Festival, brought to you by MultiChoice Group took place over the past weekend.

This year the film Rocks (UK) was awarded with the ‘Best Film’ accolade at the festival Awards Gala, held at The Inanda Club in Johannesburg on Saturday.

South African film Flatland took home the ‘Best African Film’ award, and Our Lady of the Nile (France) received a Special Recognition Award from the festival’s prestige Juror panel, comprising multi-award-winning author, Zakes Mda; NCIS: New Orleans and Avatar actress, CCH Pounder, South African screen star Florence Masebe, renowned Nigerian documentary filmmaker, screenwriter and cinematographer Femi Odugbemi and Canadian academic and writer, Nataleah Hunter-Young.

Producer Richard Green was recognised with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the festival.

The Best Films

In Rocks, directed by Sarah Gavron and starring Bukky Bakray and Kosar Ali, the titular teenager fears that she and her little brother will be forced apart if anyone finds out they are living alone. With the help of her friends, she evades the authorities and navigates the most defining days of her life. A film about the resilience, joy and spirit of girlhood.

Flatland is a contemporary Western, a journey of self-discovery for three different but equally trapped women. It paints a vivid and unique portrait of femininity against a hostile frontier land and questions what it means to be a woman today in South Africa and the world at large. It is directed by Jenna Bass and stars Faith Baloyi, Nicole Fortuin and Izel Bezuidenhout.

Set in 1973, Our Lady of the Nile follows a group of young Rwandan girls at a Belgian-run Catholic boarding school, taking inspiration from true events that would come to foreshadow the 1994 genocide during the Rwandan Civil War. Many of the girls belong to elite families, while others hold less privilege; further division is sown by ballooning anti-Tutsi rhetoric under existing Hutu rule.

Richard Green is one of this country’s most experienced producers with over forty years of experience in the film industry. His most recent film Tokoloshe – The Calling, which he directed, was picked up by American distributors Together Magic Film Group and is scheduled for a 2020 release. His producing credits include ground breaking SA films including: Nothing but the Truth; The Wooden CameraThe Sexy GirlsChikin Biznis – The Whole Story and Spud.

Joburg Film Festival’s Youth and Audience Development Programme

The winner of the Joburg Film Festival’s Youth and Audience Development Programme were also recognised. The programme was designed to encourage and empower young emerging filmmakers across Gauteng. The JFF, in partnership with the MultiChoice Group and Gauteng Film Commission (GFC), embarked on a province-wide skills transfer initiative that reached more than 100 young people in a series of workshops in Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, Mogale City, and Sedibeng. 

Aspiring filmmakers between the ages of 18 and 25 were encouraged to submit a video with the theme ‘Your Kasi, Your Story’, which served as the entry to participate in the two-day workshop in each region. The workshops specifically targeted youth living in townships and involved industry professionals sharing their extensive experience and knowledge on the amazing craft of cinematic storytelling with enthusiastic audiences. The overall winner was Sedibeng’s Malefetsane Masitha.

Bongiwe Selane, Festival Director of the Joburg Film Festival, said that the Jurors had a tough task in making a selection from the 10 films in competition at this year’s event.

“The quality of both the continental and international films at this year’s festival was incredibly high. Each was recognised for their powerful message and their ability to provoke important debate on an array of issues”.