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At a brief and lowkey event on Friday morning, the nominees for this year’s South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) were announced.
The media and industry players – some celebs among them – filled up a cinema at The Zone in Rosebank to whoop for the finalists.
The announcement yielded a bag of nominations for 1Magic’s spicy Pretoria telenovela, The River – 17 of them – and for Mzansi Magic’s popular family drama, Isibaya, which lifted 12 nominations.
Uzalo secured seven nominations, with talented actor Warren Masemola scoring three nods on his own.
His beard a foxy grey, actor and producer Thapelo Mokoena was our emcee for the morning, introducing this year’s event, which is themed Dare to Dream.
The 400 entries were whittled down to 92, the most hotly contested being best actor and actress in a telenovela. Moshidi Motshegwa, Sindi Dlathu and Jo Anne Reyneke will battle it out among the actresses and Hlomla Dandala, Siya Radebe and Presley Chweneyagae among the actors. They stand to win a record R50 000 if they lift the golden horn.
Of course we’ll not be sure what the best show in the land is because popular soapies Muvhango and Generations: The Legacy have once again boycotted the awards, previously calling theSafta process unfair and lacking credibility.
Sponsors McCafé hosted a small after party as the adrenaline subsided into nattering and gossip. It was only then that we noticed media personality Penny Lebyane, the phly one, in an African print dress and doek.
Masemola was delighted with the acknowledgment, chatting and cracking jokes with a broad smile on his face.
Now it’s eyes on the prize as the nominees head to Sun City
