Adrian Van Wyk, Ama Qamata, and Tamsin Ranger will present the awards for Best Short Film and Best South African Short Film. Their joint experience covers acting, creating, directing, producing, curating and financing films. Van Wyk, a filmmaker, creative producer, and cultural historian from Cape Town, has reflected on the manifestations of Cape Town Hip Hop in his research and films. He was selected as an artist in residence by the Singapore Art Museum for 2023 and another of his documentaries, What the Soil Remembers has recently won the Best International Short Documentary at the Regina International Film Festival and Awards, the Best Short Documentary Film at the 30th edition of the Ningbo International Short Film Festival in China and the Critics’ Choice Award at the Siberian International Film Festival. Ama Qamata is best known for her roles as Buhle in the series Gomora and Puleng Khumalo in the hit Netflix series, Blood & Water. Adrian and Ama are joined by Tamsin Ranger, head of production at Big World Cinema in 2011. She has produced several independent features, documentaries, and television series, which have screened at Sundance, Berlinale, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, IDFA and over one hundred other festivals. She is a producer on the AFRICA DIRECT documentary series for Al Jazeera English.
Ana Camila Esteves, Jacintha de Nobrega, and Khosie Dali will judge the student films at the festival. Ana Camila Esteves, a Brazilian journalist, cultural producer, researcher, and film curator is the co-founder, director, and curator, of Mostra de Cinemas Africanos, the Brazil African Film Festival. Jacintha de Nobrega is one of South Africa’s leading female producers and an alumnus of the Los Angeles Film School. She founded Arclight Productions, a film and television production company based in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, and her debut film won the coveted Best Film and Best Director awards at the Simon Mabhunu Sabela Award in July 2019. Khosie Dali is a film producer based in Cape Town, South Africa. As the founder of Miss K Productions, a boutique production house specializing in narrative fiction, she has made significant strides in both the local and international film scenes over the past decade. Her feature film, “Sons of the Sea,” a gripping crime-thriller, premiered at CineQuest in Los Angeles and won the Best South African Film award at the 43rd Durban International Film Festival.
In addition to awards for the best film in each category, Amnesty International Durban will present the Human Rights Award, and audiences will have an opportunity to vote for the Audience Choice Award. South African films are also eligible for the Best South African Film in each of the categories – feature, documentary, short, and student. Winners will be announced at the closing ceremony on the 27th of July.
“Whilst we are superbly proud about our distinguished jury assembled for this year’s festival, we are equally excited to see how the audiences take up the opportunity to vote for the Audience Choice Award”, added Andrea Voges.
