DIFF AWARDS

(A still from the Best SA Feature “Adventures in Zambezia” directed by Wayne Thornley)

The 33rd edition of the Durban International Film Festival, with principal funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, announced its award-winners prior to the closing film on Saturday. Winner of the Best Feature Film award, Love (Amour) was applauded by the International Jury as “unmissable”, and the film’s director Michael Haneke, as a “contemporary master with an astute understanding of his cinematic world”. The Best Feature Film award carries a cash prize of R50,000.

The international Jury which comprised Zimbabwean filmmaker and novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga, hot South African director Oliver Hermanus, producer and television presenter Kgomotso Matsunyane, and Canadian producer, director Peter Wintonick also awarded the Best First Feature Film prize (R20,000) to Australian Julia Leigh for Sleeping Beauty (Australia).

Receiving a cash prize of R30,000, the Best South African Feature Film was awarded to Adventures in Zambezia (South Africa), directed by Wayne Thornley. Of the large number of South African films screened this year, the jury’s unanimous voice lauded this film as one with “strong writing and direction, and beautiful animation infused with the spirit of the continent …” and one that “tells an African story from an African perspective while having clear global appeal”.

The Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award, with a prize of €2,500, went to Malika Zouhali-Worral and Katherine Fairfax Wright’s film Call Me Kuchu which focuses on attacks on gay people in Uganda.

Two other South African productions received awards: The African Cypher directed by Bryan Little won Best South African Documentary while Doppelganger directed by Joshua Rous was awarded Best South African Short Film.

The 33rd Durban International Film Festival was organised by the Centre For Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal) with support by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (principal funder), National Film and Video Foundation, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development and Tourism, HIVOS, City of Durban, German Embassy in South Africa, Goethe Institut of South Africa, French Season in South Africa, and a range of other valued partners.

For more info go to www.durbanfilmfest.co.za