I can exclusively break the news that the SABC and SABC3 has secured the broadcasting rights to the 2012 South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) with the second evening of the now two-part ceremony which will be shown delayed live on Sunday 11 March on SABC3 from 19:30.
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) which runs the Saftas, didn't respond to media enquiries made about a broadcaster for this year's award ceremony. SABC3 now has the 6th Saftas on its schedule for March.
The 6th Saftas (and it's not ''annual'' since the Saftas have not taken place ''annually'' every single year since it started) will this year, similar to the change brought in last year, stretch over two nights on 10 and 11 March handing our Golden Horn awards to respectively the non-fiction and fiction categories.
This year's 2012 Saftas drew a record number of 233 entries. Due to bad organizing the Saftas did not have a broadcast agreement in 2011 and wasn't shown on television. Critics who attended and several journalists shut out of and barred from the ramshackle 2011 event also pummeled the badly organized ceremony.
This year the Saftas will return to television and be shown delayed live on SABC3 from 19:30 to 22:00 (expect a run-over). The usually shoddily-produced TV awardfest handing out awards to local films and TV shows, is known for its deplorable production values, ranging from incompetent presenters to a myriad of visual, sound and other problems.
The Saftas is often derided by TV and film critics who are shut out from actually judging the award categories. Instead the Saftas winners are decided upon by 104 so-called ''judges'' who works within the TV industry. According to Saftas critics, this represent a conflict of interest. (For instance: The 104 judges are all previous winners and nominees. For instance: Jackie Motsepe, one of two judging chairpersons who oversee the judging, works at the SABC.)
Viewers will once again be able to vote for their favourite South African TV soap. Voting will open on 8 February, according to sources. The venue in Johannesburg where this year's Saftas will be taking place will be announced on the same date.
