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The South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) will announce the nominees in the various categories of this local awards ceremony on Wednesday 13 February in Johannesburg, which will be followed by the main, two-evening awards show, the 7th South African Film and Television Awards taking place on 15 and 16 March at Gallagher Estate.
This year the Saftas, organised by the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) received 354 entries - 120 more than the year before.
While SABC2's 7de Laan is back in as a contender in the best soap category, both of kykNET's soaps Villa Rosa and Binneland are not - continuing the public farce of this category purported to be a "viewers' vote", although the public can't really vote for all soaps.
The Saftas is currently in the last phase of judging which started in October 2012 and which will be completed by 4 February.
Nodi Murphy is the chairperson of the judging panels this year. Vibe 200 and Vertical Limit Production have been appointed by the NFVF to do the stage and event production in March.
For the first time the second round of judging for categories took place in Durban and Cape Town as well, and not all in Johannesburg.
"This year the media was requested to be a part of the Saftas final judging process as observers in order to get first-hand experience on how the final nominees and winners are selected," the NFVF tells me.
"The judges have commented on the quality of the content and are impressed by the standard of the entries."
