As part of this year's theme of "Frame the Future", the well-awaited 16th Annual South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) nominees were announced earlier today through a digital launch across all social media platforms. These nominations demonstrate the creativity, innovation, and resilience of our local industry despite the challenges it has faced following the pandemic.
Other shows that dominated the nominees' list include many Multichoice, Showmax and SABC television programs respectively.
A number of long-term favourites, as well as relatively new entrants, have gained nominations for Multichoice Group (MCG). Among the many categories, they achieved nominations in The River, Dam, and Tali's Baby Diary. Each received an impressive 11 nominations each, while DiepCity and Suidooster earned 10 nominations each and G.I.L received nine nods.
For the SABC group, there were six nominations for Skeem Saam, three nominations for 7de Laan, which aired on S3, and four nominations for Murder in Paris, while Giyani: Land of Blood received two nominations.
Three new telenovelas also received SAFTAs nods such as SABC 3’s newcomer The Estate which received three nods, while Showmax’s The Wife received 10 nominations where Bonko Khoza, Abdul Khoza and Zikhona Sodlaka received nominations for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively. eTV’s House of Zwide received eight nominations while Scandal received nine nominations.
The feature film leading this year’s nominations tally is Netflix’s I Am All Girls, which received 11 nominations across various categories such as Best Directing, Best Cinematography and Best Feature Film. How To Ruin Christmas, Season 2 received an impressive 16 nominations.
The South African Film and Television Awards were launched in 2005 with the aim to honour and celebrate as well as promote and reward creativity, quality and excellence of South African film and television talent and content.
Speaking on the nominations, Makhosazana Khanyile who’s the Chief Executive Officer of National Film and Video Foundation said that this year’s theme “Frame the Future” was an urge for the industry to unite and work together in crafting a new path forward.
“Last year, we faced our greatest challenge ever post-Covid, this year, we celebrate the connectedness that helped us get through, while actively promoting optimism within our local industry. With the release of this year’s nominees, we are looking forward to a remarkable show that will showcase the creative innovation that our local industry has continued to display despite the circumstances that have been faced.”
And like every other year, the institution has opened up two categories for the public’s votes and they are; Best TV presenter and Most popular soap/telenovela with tough competition from the second-time nominee in this category Thembisa Nxumalo-Mdoda, Molatsi Mafatshe, Samora Mangesi, Devi Sankaree Govender, and Lawrence Maleka.
A full list of all this year’s nominees can be viewed on the SAFTAs official website as well as the NVFV website.
