Mail & Guardian reporter
The Mail & Guardian’s literary editor and film reviewer Shaun de Waal has been awarded the 2001 FNB/Vita Thomas Pringle award for his film reviews.
The judging committee praised De Waal’s “exceptional way of dealing with a diverse range of subject matter” and noted that his “skill as a reviewer brings in the many nuances and devices of the cinematic genre in an understandable manner”, especially commending his “sensitive, textured response” to the Iranian film The Colour of Paradise, about a blind child.
Says De Waal: “I am very pleased because it is always a great compliment to receive an accolade from the English Academy [of Southern Africa, which organises the awards].”
De Waal, also a recipient of the 1997 Thomas Pringle award for book reviews, is the author of the short fiction collection These Things Happen, a former arts editor of the M&G, and has been literary editor since 1991. De Waal also launched a gay talk show, No Straight Talking, on Radio 702 in the mid-Nineties.