SA rhino documentary wins top international awards

Susan Scott and Bonné de Bod STROOP

The South African feature documentary STROOP – journey into the rhino horn war has won the coveted Best Documentary award at the prestigious San Diego International Film Festival held this past weekend.

ALSO READ: SA Film Wins Award Ahead Of World Premiere At US Festival

Hollywood’s Mudbound producer Kyle Tekiela presented the award to filmmakers Bonné de Bod and Susan Scott saying, “documentaries tell stories that bring big issues to light and the jury felt this was one of the biggest of them all, that poignantly conveys the struggle the world’s rhinos are having to remain alive for the next decade.”

The weekend was a winning one for the filmmakers as they also scooped an additional two awards – from the LA-based Glendale International Film Festival where they picked the Best Female Filmmakers award (a huge accomplishment given that over 130-films across fiction and documentary were in competition, which meant that STROOP was given the nod across all genres). And – also in LA – from the city’s premiere film festival, LA Femme, which supports women producers from around the world, De Bod and Scott were awarded the Special Documentary of Focus Award.

The previous weekend, the film received another nod in the form of Best Documentary award at the San Pedro International Film Festival, also held in Los Angeles, and last month, STROOP was handed the 2018 Green Tenacity Award by the judges of the San Francisco Green Film Festival.

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SA Film Wins Award Ahead of World Premiere at US Festival

STROOP_journey_into_the_rhino_horn_war SA Film Wins Award

Journey into the Rhino Horn War, the locally made documentary film, has been awarded the 2018 Green Tenacity Award by the judges of the Eighth Annual San Francisco Green Film Festival.

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This comes ahead of the film’s world premiere at the festival which will run from Thursday September 6 through to Friday, September 14.

What makes the win and the premiere all the more impressive is the fact that the festival organisers received 350 submissions but ultimately only 26 films were selected to screen and, of those, only five have received awards.

Says a delighted Bonné de Bod, who produces and fronts the film: “We are over the moon at receiving this prestigious award and it makes all our hard work and dedication to this film that much more worthwhile.

“Hopefully, it also means that the recognition will create additional awareness and encourage even more people to see the film when it releases.”

According to the festival’s criteria, the Green Tenacity Award is given to filmmakers “who show great tenacity in exploring crucial environmental issues in their work.”

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