Local film makers will be celebrated at kykNET’s upcoming Silwerskerm Film Festival.
The “Silwerskerm” as it’s known in Cape Town, is an annual event that highlights and celebrates film makers under the kykNET banner.
The 11th kykNET Silwerskerm Film Festival will showcase several new local features, with 15 short films in different genres also premièring.
These short films in various Afrikaans dialects and genres have been produced by up-and-coming creatives, with the funding and mentorship of the television channel kykNET and the festival.
The channel recently announced the dates of the annual festival and marked August 23- 26 as festival days.
The event will again be held at the Bay Hotel in Camps Bay, Cape Town. The festival also makes way for an exciting addition made up of a collection of mini-doccies which forms part of a festival development project.
M-Net Director of Premium channels, Waldimar Pelser, said: “The Silwerskerm Film Festival plays a seminal role in the sustainability of the local film and television industry as it’s the launch pad for high-quality films as well as the careers of bright and promising storytellers.
“We look forward to hosting the festival in August again, the month festival goers have become accustomed to.”
The festival highlights film creatives from Mzansi and there’s reason enough to boast a few gems among these top achievers.
Previous feature and short films have raked in a long list of international awards, and many of today’s esteemed South African filmmakers entered the industry via the short film competition.
These success stories will be sharing their journey with the audience.
Among them are Christiaan Olwagen, who clinched several awards for movies such as “Johnny is Nie Dood Nie”, “Kanarie” and “Poppie Nongena”, Amy Jeptha and Ephraim Gordon, the visionaries behind the groundbreaking Muslim movie in Afrikaans, “Barakat”, and filmmaking couple Corné and René van Rooyen, who produced “Vaselinetjie”and “Toorbos”.
A special screening of a once-off documentary titled “Agter die SIlwerskerm” about the history and significance of the kykNET Silwerskerm Film Festival, will air on kykNET on Sunday, February 12, at 9pm.
In the documentary, festival founders Karen Meiring and Jan du Plessis share how the festival was brought to life in 2012 when the South African film industry was waning due to a lack of funding.
Many producers, directors, writers and film crew, whose careers catapulted because of the short film project, talk about their journey under the festival’s wing.