When the annual Vuka! Awards proudly celebrate a decade in existence next year they will be getting a new look.
At this year’s Vuka! prize ceremony MultiChoice chief executive Nolo Letele announced that from 2008 the initiative will be hosted by M-Net.
‘We truly believe M-Net, our sister company and one of MultiChoice’s channel providers, will provide valuable insight and expertise and take the Vuka! Awards to the next level,” said Letele.
Glen Marques, chief executive of M-Net, heartily accepted the challenge: ‘M-Net is excited to be hosting the Vuka! Awards. Over the years we have admired how these awards have evolved and are proud that from next year we will be associated with this project. As a producer and provider of television content, M-Net is committed to growing our industry and giving back to the communities in which we live.”
Initiated in 1998, the Vuka! Awards are an annual filmmaker competition that supports the South African film and advertising industry. This successful initiative showcases professional talent and encourages fresh, raw talent to spread worthy messages of hope to viewers, through public service announcements (PSAs).
In addition, MultiChoice sponsors the flighting of the PSAs on selected DStv channels and, as a result, provides great benefit and exposure to many charities and social development agencies that would otherwise be unable to afford the exposure.
Since they started the MultiChoice Vuka! Awards have generated more than 1 500 PSAs, with the top 30% of entries broadcast to more than a million homes in South Africa and surrounding countries every year. This equates to more than R80-million worth of airtime and the equivalent in production.
Workshops are held around the country, equipping and upskilling aspirant filmmakers to encourage their entry into the awards programme. This often becomes their springboard to success and a career in the film and advertising world.
Said Letele: ‘When MultiChoice originally looked into starting a CSI project, we realised we needed something that would have ‘high impact’, but was also closely aligned with our business. After a number of ideas were exchanged, the most appealing and exciting was the Vuka! Awards. Such was the success that in the first year of the project more than 120 entries were received. An added bonus was having Spike Lee, the renowned film director of Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever, attend the awards in 1999. By 2000 the number of PSA submissions reached 204 and by 2007 about 1 500 PSAs have been made by South Africa’s top professionals, its most committed creatives and talented students.”
The film and advertising industry comes to the party by contributing about R20-million a year in the form of facilities and personal expertise. Most filmmakers who embark on making a Vuka! apply for direct assistance from production and facility houses in the form of rebates or sponsorships, and from professional producers in the form of their time and intellectual support.
The list of the people who have made MultiChoice Vuka! Awards over the years reads like a South African filmmakers guide to who’s who. Luminaries include Keith Rose, Miles Goodall, Sunu Gonera, Cindy Lee, Kevin Fitzgerald, Mike Middleton, Werner Maritz, Sergio and Lizelle Mes.
MultiChoice CSI projects
Highway Africa
The Highway Africa conference is the largest annual assembly of African journalists on the continent. It is held at Rhodes University’s department of journalism and media studies. The aim is to integrate Africa’s media into the global information society. MultiChoice is proud to be an annual sponsor of the conference.
CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards
African talent across all journalistic disciplines is commended and recognised at the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year Awards. The competition is open to African professional journalists working on the continent for media organisations that are African-owned or principally based in Africa or that publish a publication for reception within the continent. The competition is open to freelance journalists working under the same criteria.
Mindset Learn
MultiChoice strives to accelerate the development of both learners and educators through the provision of focused content and the supply of the DStv platform to deliver that content. This is achieved primarily through the Mindset Network and Mindset Learn. MultiChoice is a founding partner of Mindset Network, a non-profit organisation that delivers free educational material to schools via satellite broadcasts, with supporting multimedia material in print and on the internet. The content — under the label Mindset Learn — aims to provide disadvantaged learners with technology-based education as a means of alleviating poverty.
MultiChoice Resource Centre
The project entails equipping selected schools with digital satellite equipment required to access the DStv education bouquet, which is made available to participating schools free of charge. Comprising seven premium channels — National Geographic, Discovery Channel, the History Channel, Animal Planet, SABC Africa, BBC World and Mindset Learn — the bouquet combines the sound and imagery of television to support teaching and learning in schools. Training and support of teachers to use the resource effectively and efficiently is one of the fundamental elements of the initiative.