ZANews takes two major awards at the 7th Bookmarks Award,
and gets nominated for 11 SAFTAs.
It’s been a great week for ZANews, first winning a Gold
Pixel for Specialist Publishing Site and the award for Best Editorial Team at
the recently held 7th Bookmarks Awards in Newtown, and then receiving 11 SAFTA
(South African Film and Television Awards) nominations for Puppet Nation ZA.
The ZANews team not only produces South Africa’s favourite
satirical puppet news show, but is also the online home of satire in the
country, showcasing cartoons, columns and fake news stories (à la Hayibo and The Onion). It is ZANews' mission to make laugh, not war, as they
believe that South Africa is generally in need of a lot of laughter these days.
Both Worlds, the production company behind ZANews and Puppet
Nation, the actors, writers, editors, puppeteers, puppet-makers, producers,
cartoonists, columnists, and technical crew state that they are honoured to
share these accolades with its broadcast partner StarOne [a StarSat channel].
ZANews was born when French producer Thierry Cassuto and
South African cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro came together to make their first
puppet - Madiba, naturally. Launched online in 2009, it was inspired by the UK
series Spitting Image and the French Les Guignols. The show is about making
news interesting and relevant, challenging perceptions, and generally holding
politicians and celebrities up to scrutiny and ridicule.