Africa’s Oscars : Andrew Worsdale
Two days before the launch of South African cinema’s biggest schmooze-fest, Sithengi, the film and TV market, most local players were gathered in force with the continent’s counterparts at last Saturday’s M-Net All Africa Film Awards in Pretoria.
The State Theatre is a bit monolithic but the seats are so comfortable they’re almost sleep inducing. The whole affair was like a Third World Oscars and was completely dominated by French – even the Arabaphones chose to use the Gallic tongue. I, for one, was hoping to hear some guttural Arabic.
The Malian film Faraw! Un Mere des Sables captured the most awards, including the Grand Prize as well as Best Francophone Film, Best Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Lead Actress – the astonishing Aminata Ousmane Maga, a Malian housewife who had never acted before.
In the movie, which is evidently astonishingly moving, she plays a mother of three kids with a handicapped husband who endures immense hardship but refuses to prostitute her daughter. She gets help from a friend who lends her a donkey which eventually enables her to sell water, giving inspiration to her ravaged family. Unfortunately I doubt we’ll get to see this debut film of director Abdoulay Ascofare on the big screen, and it will probably be relegated to some late-night slot on the pay channel despite all the praise heaped upon it.
The Arabaphone region had joint winners as Best Film in the form of Algeria’s La Nuit du Destin by Abdelkrim Bakhloul. The film tells the story of an old man who accidentally witnesses a murder and is too petrified to come forward as a witness. The other winner was Femmes et Femmes from Morocco which earned eight nominations. Director Sad Chrabi tells the tale of four young women living in a patriarchal society.
South Africa didn’t fare badly either, wining the Best Film award for the Anglophone region with Chikin Biznis – The Whole Story written by acclaimed author Mtutuzeli Matshoba and based on his original script for the short film which M- Net produced as part of its New Directions programme to encourage emerging filmmakers. This time the film was directed by Ntshaveni Wa Luruli and producer Richard Green is confident that the movie will travel well, especially now that they’ve subtitled the picture. Mind you, it’s not hard to know why the movie won the award. It was the only nomination in the category – thus a foregone conclusion.
Countries that had nominated films included Morocco, Mali, Algeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Egypt, Tunisia and of course South Africa. Tanzania, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast submitted movies but didn’t make it into the final selection.
The pay channel dishes out R250 000 in prizes and obviously spends a great deal of money on the show, the preparation, flying out the movie-makers and of course the liquor-strewn buffet afterwards.
It’s the 11th year of the awards and M-Net ought to be congratulated on the initiative, certainly last week’s occasion was refreshingly short and astutely hosted by Khanyi Dhlomo-Mkhize and Penny Smythe . A couple of years ago I attended the awards at Gallagher Estate. They droned on for ages and there was an inexplicable and irredeemably kitsch rendering of the hits of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
This year they seem to have really gotten their act together. There was a distinctive African feel to the event with loads of glamorous wardrobes from the presenters and award-winners alike. Plus there was a sense of African celebrity – Nigel Hawthorne presented the awards for Best Actor and Actress and Winston Ntshona, certainly this country’s most under-rated movie actor, presented awards for best supporting roles.
But probably the most touching event of the evening, for me anyway, was when Djibril Diop Mambety’s 23 year old-son Teemour, positive proof that the All Africa Film Awards are celebrating and keeping the continuity of the continent’s cinema.