South African Film and Television Awards announce nominees for 2017

The SAFTA team at the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) with assistance from SAFTA committee members (CCISFA, SASFED, eTV, Mnet, SABC and Starsat) have put in a tremendous effort to ensure that the awards uphold a standard of excellence and remain a world class production.

The awards will take place on 16-18 March 2017 in Sun City. The audience can watch the live show on 18 March on SABC 2 at 8pm. With the awards being in their 11th year of celebrating growth and talent, the 11th annual SAFTAs have been themed 'SA’s got it – let’s celebrate it' which is a well-suited vision of looking towards setting higher goals for the South African film and television industry.

Zama Mkosi, CEO of the NFVF, said, "We are extremely proud and honoured to have finally reached this stage of the SAFTAs 11, we as the NFVF would like to congratulate all the nominees and hope to encourage the industry to continue striving while setting its own rules around what success looks like for the business of film. Each year comes with its own challenges and growth opportunities that we highly prioritise. The NFVF will continue to strive for transparency and solutions in order to make sure that the SAFTAs showcase not only the glamorous side of the industry, but the underlying wealth of talent, education, skill and most importantly the passion that the South African industry truly has."

The NFVF would like to acknowledge and thank all the 181 SAFTAs 11 judges for their invaluable contribution and dedication to the adjudication and voting process that started in December 2016. Their work under the directorship and guidance from the three overall judging chairs; Jerry Mofokeng, Firdoze Bulbulia and Dr John Kani has finally resulted in a crucial and exciting part of the SAFTAs 11 journey concluding the SAFTAs 11 nominees. All the auditing for the SAFTAs 11 judging process has been officially procured by PWC South Africa.

Key to the success of SAFTAs 11 are the private sector partners that have come on board such as Sun International, Mc Café and Ster Kinekor. Mc Café have shown significant surpport in advancing and developing the exceptional talent in South Africa. Mc Café will present the Best Actor and Actress Awards in a Feature Film at the awards. Ster Kinekor has shown its commitment to the development of the film industry by presenting the Youth Achiever Award, an award that recognises a young individual or new comer who has demonstrated excellence in their craft.

Awards to note

The Discretionary Awards call for nominations closes on 20 February. The industry and public are encouraged to email their nominations to az.oc.fvfn@lyecats for the following awards:

• Life Time Achiever Award is presented to an experienced individual with an extensive and outstanding contribution to South African film and television, both locally and internationally.

• Youth Achiever presented by Ster-Kinekor is awarded to a new comer or young individual who has demonstrated excellence in their craft.

• Outstanding Provincial Contributor award is awarded to a person with a disability who has achieved excellence in the film and television industry.

• Outstanding Person with Disability Contributor is awarded to an outstanding individual, group or a initiative that has contributed significantly towards developing the film and television industry in the respective province.

The public can continue voting for their favourite soapie by sending an sms with the correct code to 48430. All sms’s are charged at R1.50. The sms line will be open until 16 March.

The public can also vote for the Best TV Presenter by sending a sms with the correct code to 48430. All sms’s are charged at R1.50.

All Awards Nominations 2017