South Africa has scored an Oscar nomination at the 90th Academy Awards for the animation film ‘Revolting Rhymes’, produced by Triggerfish, which received a nomination in the category Best Animated Short Film. The film is an adaptation of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake’s classic book of fairytales. The nominations in all 24 Oscar® categories were announced in a live presentation which took place in Hollywood on 23 January. Johannesburg audiences will be able to see Revolting Rhymes at The Bioscope in Maboneng on 16 February.
In the same week controversial South African film ‘Inxeba’ (‘The Wound’), which made it to the Oscar® shortlist after it was submitted in the category of Best Foreign Language Film, has been nominated for an award in the category of Outstanding Film – Limited Release, by the GLAAD Media Awards, which recognizes fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community and the issues that affect their lives. This is the first time that a foreign language film has received a nomination.
Six public screenings of ‘Inxeba’ are being held in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Durban on 24 January whereby local audiences will be given the opportunity to vote on whether it should have won an Oscar ®. To date ‘Inxeba’ has earned 19 Best of Category Awards around the world.
‘Inxeba’ is an international co-production between South Africa, Germany, The Netherlands and France, and was produced by Elias Ribeiro and Cait Pansegrouw of Urucu Media, directed by John Trengove and co-written by Trengove, Thando Mgqolozana and Malusi Bengu. It was co-produced by Batana Vundla of Cool Take Pictures with local support from the Department of Trade and Industry, M-Net, Indigenous Film Distribution and the National Film and Video Foundation.
The film stars Nakhane, Bongile Mantsai and Niza Jay.
The debut feature from director John Trengove, ‘Inxeba’ is a critically acclaimed drama, which explores tradition and sexuality and is set amid the Xhosa rites of passage into manhood.
The film, which will be released countrywide on 2 February, is being distributed in South Africa by Indigenous Film Distribution. “We are exceptionally proud of ‘Inxeba’ and the impressive journey it has been on, winning 19 global awards since it first appeared at Sundance last year January.”
Also on the Indigenous Films slate for the first quarter of the year is ‘Loving Vincent’, which has just been nominated for the Oscar ® in the category of Best Animated Feature, alongside ‘Coco’, ‘The Breadwinner’, ‘Ferdinand’ and ‘Boss Baby’.
‘Loving Vincent’ was first shot as a live action film with actors, and then hand-painted over frame-by-frame in oils. The final effect is an interaction of the performance of the actors playing Vincent’s famous portraits, and the performance of the painting animators, bringing these characters alive through the medium of paint.
“We are delighted to be bring a ground-breaking film of this calibre to South African audiences.” added says Helen Kuun, of Indigenous Film Distribution whom will be releasing the film in South Africa on 23 February.
