Another South African Oscar nomination
Fourth year student Miklas Manneke directs Kanye Kanye, a romantic comedy that deals with a forbidden love affair between two young township teenagers. His third year film Electricity won a number of awards in 2012. He is a student at AFDA (the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance).
"The wonder of film is the ability to change the world by creating another," says Manneke, who is thrilled with the nomination. "It is an honour for everyone involved in the making of the film to be selected on this international platform to represent AFDA film school at the beginning of our careers, especially considering the high standard of the Student Oscars. It is great to know that my voice has had an impact on an audience and that I could bring a drop of enjoyment to the world from a South African point of view."
The film won nine AFDA Gold Awards at the annual awards including sound design, visual effects, editing, production design, costume- make-up- and styling, screenplay, directing, acting and cinematography.
Other nominations
It has also been nominated as the AFDA candidate for best fiction film for the CILECT (International Film School Association) Awards, along with the AFDA Cape Town documentary Crumbs in the documentary category and the third year Cape Town animation Like Clockwork in the best animation category.
"Although the Oscar award is by far the most prestigious of all student awards, the CILECT Award is possibly one of the most difficult awards to win as it is contested by over 100 of the world's top film schools, " says AFDA co-founder and CILECT executive board member Garth Holmes. "Our congratulations to all the films that have been nominated - it's a rare honour and we look forward to the results in the near future."
"Kanye Kanye is a reflective short film by a student director and team whose attention to detail has made it a work of art which will resonate world-wide," adds Gina Bonmariage, postgraduate course director at AFDA Johannesburg.