8 Annual Sou African Film and Television (SAFTAs) Nominees Announced

The long awaited moment on South Africas entertainment calendar arrived on Wednesday evening when the 2014 nominees of South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) were announced. There was an air of anticipation as nominees, celebrities and esteemed guests arrived at the VIP Supper Club, Urban Tree, in Sandton, amidst photographers and camera crew clamouring to get a shot of the industrys whos who.

On arrival guests were offered a selection of drinks and canap s and were warmly greeted by the eminent Master of Ceremonies, Mr Alan Committie. A former SAFTAs winner for Best Supporting Actor and well known for his comedic skills and his talent as a writer and director (also a former winner of a SAFTAs Golden Horn) kept the audience thoroughly entertained throughout the event.

Zama Mkosi, NFVF CEO and Chairperson of the SAFTAs Committee welcomed the guests and highlighted South Africas celebration of 20 Years of Democracy, saying that this theme would also be used to showcase SAs film and television heritage during the Awards. As a sign of the growing industry confidence towards the SAFTAs, we continue to see an upward trend in the number of entries. This year a total of 432 entries were received compared to 354 entries in 2013. A healthy 22% increase from last year. Zama made specific mention of leadership provided by the two Overall Judging Chairpersons, Jerry Mofokeng and Roberta Durrant.

Jerry Mofokeng echoed Zama's sentiments declaring that It has been my resolve to maintain the integrity of these awards throughout. We believe that weve fine-tuned the nominee process and remained advocates for both the industry and the SAFTAs. He also made mention of the categories in which there were no nominations.

A full list of the nominees is available, but some of the highlights are the nominees in the Best TV Drama Category who overall received more than one nomination in recognition for their achievements: Intersexions: Season 2 received eight (8) nominations, Tempy Pushas four (4) nominations, Room 9, seven nominations while and Rockville received five nominations.

This year a new category, Made for TV Movie, was introduced as a result of the number of Drama and Feature entries submitted that specialised in TV. This year the category focused on Best Writer and Best Director, the Writing Team for Inside Story and Kalumbu Kapisa for The Wall announced as nominees for Best writer while Felicia Molusi for Isithembu, Rolisizwe Nikiwe for Inside Story and Kalumbu Kapisa for The Wall were nominated for Best Director. The Best Feature Film category saw the following films nominated: Long Walk to Freedom: Videovision Entertainment, Of Good Report: Spier Films and Sleeper's Wake, produced by Bioskope Filmworks.

In the hotly contested Best Soapie Category the nominees are: Isidingo, Generations, Scandal, Villa Rosa, Isibaya, 7 de Laan, Rhythm City, The Wild and Binneland. Unfortunately, this year Muvhango was not nominated as it failed to meet some of the SAFTA entry guideline requirements (detailed here).

As the nominee announcement came to a close, the evening was by no means over. Alan took to the stage and had the audience in stitches with his stand-up act. In tune with the celebratory feel of the evening the versatile DJ Switch then opened up the dance floor by spinning the decks and guests started to party, dancing the night away in true SAFTAs style. Remember to watch the Awards Ceremony on the 4th and 5th April to see which nominees receive a Golden Horn.

To VIEW THE FULL LIST OF NOMINEES CONTINUE TO http://nfvf.co.za/sites/default/files/saftas_2014_nominees_list.pdf

LINK:	http://www.filmcontact.com/africa/south-africa/8th-annual-south-africa...
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