The 2018 edition of the Cape Town International Film Market and Festival wrapped up on Friday October 19th with a Gala Awards evening at the newly re-furbished Cape Town City Hall.
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With over 120 films in competition, across a range of categories, the various juries, made up of film experts from home and afar did not have an easy task in selecting the Award winners.
This year’s festival once again focused a spotlight on various genres including documentary, feature and short films, as well as including themed awards such as Best LGBTQ, Best Asian Film, and a notable award for Best New Director.
CTIFMF Festival Director Leon van der Merwe had this to say of this year’s film selection, “The Festival Director would like to congratulate the winners and thank the various juries for the selection of the Awards. For more than a week the juries had the opportunity to watch films from around the world.
The juries were especially impressed by the Asian features from countries such as Thailand, the Philippines and Taiwan that offered innovative aesthetic approaches to the subject matter. It was also a pleasure to experience the focus on contemporary Italian and Romanian cinema. The entries from across Africa also increased this year both in quantity and quality and it is clear that African film is on the cusp of a major resurgence.”
The overall winner of the year’s Cape Town International Film Market and Festival, recipient of three awards including the most coveted award of the night, The Grand Prix, as well as awards for Best Director Award and Best Actor was the Italian film, Dogman. The film competed at this past year’s Cannes Film Festival where Marcello Fonte also won for Best Actor.
The CTIFMF’s Opening Film, and South Africa’s official official submission for the Oscar’s, Sew the Winter to My Skin, directed by Jahmil X. T Qubeka, won the Award for Best South African Feature Film, whilst Rehad Desai’s Everything Must Fall won for Best South African Documentary, and the Best South African Short Film was won by Rea Moeti’s Mma Moeketsi.
South African film Kanarie also took home the award for Best LGBTQ Film, while Kenyan Director of Supa Modo, Likarion Wainaina, won the award for Best New Director in the New Voices category and was described by the jury as “a true new voice of contemporary cinema. The director succeeds in bringing its audience into the shoes of a kid, showing us the world through her eyes, without ever trivialising nor overdramatizing a difficult topic such as a child’s illness. The director shows an uncommon capacity of leading his actors and keeping a difficult balance between drama, comedy and fairy tale.”
