The 40th Durban International Film Festival announced its winner at its awards ceremony last night (23 July) at the Elangeni Hotel. After an intense process of viewing the films in competition, three international DIFF jury teams - deliberating early than usual - offered the following as their final awardees of the films in the competition section.
A total of 19 awards were given out at the ceremony:
Best Cinematography: Divine Love directed by Gabriel Mascaro (Brazil)
Best Short Film: Acid directed by Just Philippot (France)
Best Actor: Bongile Mantsai for Knuckle City (South Africa)
Best Screenplay: Les Misérables directed by Ladj Ly (France)
Best South African Short Film: Miracle directed by Bongi Ndaba (Uk/Usa/Syria). The award is accompanied by a cash prize of R20,000 from the Gauteng Film Commission.
Best Documentary: For Sama directed Edward Watts and Waad al-Kateab (Uk/Usa/Syria). The award is accompanied by a cash prize of R25,000 from the Film & Publications Board
Best African Short Film: Brotherhood directed by Meryam Joobeur (Tunisia/Canada). The award is accompanied by a cash prize oR20, 000 from the Gauteng Film Commission.
Best Editing: Cronofobia directed by Francesco Rizzi (Switzerland)
Best Actress: Nisrin Erradi for Adam (Morocco)
Best Direction: Divine Love directed by Gabriel Mascaro (Brazil)
Best South African Documentary: Buddha in Africa directed by Nicole Schafer. The award is accompanied by a cash prize of R25,000 from the Film & Publications Board.
Best Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award at DIFF 2019: For Sama directed Edward Watts and Waad al-Kateab (Uk/Usa/Syria)
Best Feature Film: Les Misérables directed by Ladj Ly (France) The award is accompanied by a cash prize of R50,000.
Artistic Bravery: Letters Of Hope directed by Vusi Africa (South Africa)
Best South African Feature Film: Back of the Moon directed by Angus Gibson. The award is accompanied by a cash prize of R25,000.
DIFF Legacy Award: Peter Rorvik.
DIFF Legacy Award: Roz Sarkin and AB Moosa.
DIFF Legacy Award: Julie Frederikse and Madoda Ncayiyana.
DIFF is included as a Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival by the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. This means that both the winners of the Best Documentary For Sama and Best SA Documentary Buddha in Africa, automatically qualify for consideration for an Oscar nomination.
The features jury were Emrah Kilic (Turkey), Diarah N'Daw-Spech (USA), Laurence Boyce (UK), Diana Keam (South Africa) and Mohammed Siam (Egypt).
The documentary jury were Patricia Van Heerden (SA), Florian Weghorn (Germany), Tracy Clayton (UK/SA), Rehad Desai (SA) and Ziyanda Macingwane (SA).
The short film jurors were Jaime E. Manrique (Colombia), Silas Miami (Kenya), Jacintha De-Nobrega (SA), CJ Obasi (Nigeria) and Mpho Ramathuthu (SA).
The festival continues until Sunday, 28 July at various venues around Durban.
