JUST IN: Winners of doccie categories at Durban film festival will qualify for Oscar contention
The only other qualifying African festival is the Carthage Festival in Tunisia.
Winners of the best international documentary and best SA documentary categories at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) will now automatically be in contention and qualify for Oscar consideration.
DIFF has this week been notified by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of this inclusion, which effectively means the winning documentaries will be up for consideration for the 91st Academy Awards in 2019.
This year, the Academy established a Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival List, and the DIFF is one of 28 selected international festivals which will have its winners up for consideration.
DIFF joins other prestigious festivals from around the globe including the Cannes International Film Festival, Berlinale International Film Festival, Sydney International Film Festival, Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival, and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
The only other qualifying African festival is the Carthage Festival in Tunisia.
“We are delighted with this international recognition, and we are especially pleased for the film-makers who will benefit from the recognition they will receive as a result,” says Lliane Loots speaking on behalf of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts which hosts the festival. “The festival began 39 years ago as a means to expose South Africans to global stories, during the dark days of apartheid, where censorship and government policy as well as hard-felt, yet very effective, cultural boycotts denied us access to international creative expression. It was also started as a means to offer cinema experiences in townships where people had very little access to ‘the media’ at large. So from these humble beginnings, we are really grateful to the Academy for providing this opportunity for the filmmakers who have films in the festival.”
DIFF is currently running at various venues in Durban until 29 July. Within the festival, over 850 filmmakers were in Durban for the business of film in the Durban Filmmart until Monday, 23 July, the Wavescape Surf Film Festival at Ushaka until 27 July for free screenings. Then the BRICS Film Festival takes place from 23 July to 27 July at The Playhouse.
