Red Dust nominated for BAFTA Award

"We are thrilled that Red Dust is the first South African film to be nominated for the Best Single Drama prize in the British Academy Television Awards," says Anant Singh, producer of Red Dust. "The film has touched audiences around the world. Red Dust won the coveted Audience Prize in Miami and the Special Jury Award and the Silver Peacock at the 36th International Film Festival of India. We are proud to be nominated for this prestigious with our long-time partners, BBC Films".

Also nominated in the same category are the British films The Government Inspector, Much Ado About Nothing and The Queen's Sister.

Red Dust received rave reviews when it was released theatrically in Australia, the United Kingdom and South Africa. The film was also featured at the Cape Town World Cinema Festival, the Bangkok Film Festival, Palm Springs Film Festival, the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, the Human Rights Nights Film Festival in Bologna Italy, The African Diaspora Film Festival in New York and The Prague International Film Festival in the Czech Republic.

Directed by Tom Hooper and written by Troy Kennedy-Martin (Italian Job, Bravo Two Zero), Red Dust is a co-production between Videovision Entertainment, Distant Horizon and BBC Films, in association with the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) and the SABC. The film is produced by Anant Singh, Helena Spring, David Thompson and Ruth Caleb, with executive producers Sanjeev Singh, Sudhir Pragjee and Joe Oppenheimer.

Starring two-time Oscar winner, Hilary Swank, Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things), Jamie Bartlett (Beyond Borders), Ian Roberts (Tsotsi), Marius Weyers and Nambitha Mpumlwana (Tsotsi), the drama was shot in South Africa on location in Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape and in Johannesburg

Moses Silinda, head of the IDC's media and motion pictures business unit, states, "The IDC is pleased to be associated with Red Dust and we are delighted with its British Academy Television Award Nomination. The IDC is entrenched in its support for the South African film industry and we are committed to its development."

"The SABC is delighted with Red Dust's nomination for Best Single Drama. Our involvement in Red Dust is part of our broader strategy of supporting the South African film and television Industry," affirms CEO of the SABC, Solly Mokoetle.