The 16th annual South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) is getting ready to celebrate, reward and honour the country’s film and TV industry with more than 400 film entries.
The judges now have a mammoth task at hand as they shift through 426 compliant entries before making the nomination announcement set for July 14.
The call for submissions started in December 2021 and was extended to March 6 in order to afford the industry sufficient time to submit entries.
Due to the level of content featuring on digit platforms and its increased viewership, Saftas included a genre specifically for online content which, on its own, received 25 entries.
In the feature films and TV drama genre 23 compliant submissions were received.
The main awards show is scheduled to take place on September 3 as a simulcast broadcast on Mzansi Magic and S3.
A day before the main event on September 2, celebrations kick off with the Craft Awards show, which honours excellence within the technical sector of the industry.
“The Saftas used to take to the stage in March, but we have moved the date as we needed to rethink our approach due to the domino-effect impact of Covid-19 restrictions on the industry, how that affected the timing and quality of productions, and social distance protocols.
“Furthermore, we also recognise the re-emergence of other industry award ceremonies which need fair industry engagement,” said Makhosazana Khanyile, CEO of NFVF.
Last year, actor Menzi Ngubane won the Best Actor in a Telenovela award posthumously, having died in March, while Best Actress in a Telenovela went to Sindi Dlathu for her role as Lindiwe on 1Magic’s “The River”.
M-Net’s “Legacy” won Best Telenovela.