The bad and shoddy production values at this year's 13th South African Film and Television Awards was once again in full display and caused embarrassment when film category presenters - actress Crystal Donna Roberts and McDonalds SA boss Greg Solomon - were left standing during ongoing envelope mistakes that marred the Best actor, Best actress and Best supporting actress announcements.
Actress Crystal Donna Roberts and McDonalds South Africa CEO Greg Solomon walked out on the stage for the film categories in Saturday night's live broadcast from Sun City for the National Film and Video Foundation's 13th Saftas that was a live broadcast on SABC2, when the embarrassing trouble began.
After the nominee video for Best Actor in a feature film rolled, Greg Solomon and Crystal Donna Roberts were awkwardly left standing with no envelope and with nothing on the Clive Morris Productions autocue screen for them to say.
"They're just building some suspense now," said Crystal Donna Roberts, still without envelope, starting to play for time. "As we wait. Everyone's nervous. Who's it gonna be? We don't know."
"I've run out of script now," said Crystal Donna Roberts awkwardly. "Sorry guys. Totally run out of script."
A runner finally appeared from backstage handing an envelope to Crystal Donna Roberts.
"Right. You've got it? You're ready?" asked Greg Solomon. "And the Golden Horn goes to ..."
"Jarrid Geduld; Ellen, die Ellen Pakkies Storie," said Crystal Donna Roberts.
But this wasn't end.
Next came the nominee video roll for Best Supporting Actress in a feature film with Anna-Mart van der Merwe, June van Merch and Ilse Klink as nominees.
"We' don't have to ad lib this time. And the Golden Horn goes to ..." said Greg Solomon confidently, but he had no idea of the mess to come.
Crystal Donna Roberts suddenly read the envelope she was handed, although it was the wrong one: "Best actress in a feature film, the Golden Horn goes to Jill Levenberg; Ellen, Die Ellen Pakkies Storie".
Jill Levenberg walked to stage, as Greg Solomon stood awkwardly and Crystal Donna Roberts suddenly realised the mistake and looked around for direction and help as she walked to the side of the stage, saying "I don't understand what I must do. Okay, okay, sorry".
Jill Levenberg was told to step aside and wait in the wings.
"And then, Best supporting actress in a feature film, goes to Ilse Klink in Stroomop," said Crystal Donna Roberts, reading the next and now correct new envelope that got handed to her, with actress Ilse Klink who now came to stage to give her speech.
After that the video roll for Best actress in a feature film unspooled although everyone now knew Jill Levenberg won. "Guess who? Jill Levenberg!" shouted Crystal Donna Roberts as the actress came back out from backstage, saying "Wow, what a strange experience".
Neo Moretlwe, NFVF communications coordinator and Saftas publicist Keagile Makgoba from Instinctif PR agency on Sunday didn't respond to a media enquiry seeking comment and an explanation as to why the Saftas wrong envelope mistakes occurred.
UPDATE Monday 4 March 2019 08:10:
Instinctif issues a "holding statement" from Clive Morris Productions, saying "As CMP we pride ourselves on striving for production excellence and have a long history of flawless live productions".
"However, on a live broadcast there is always the possibility of human error. Even the Oscars can attest to this."
"During the live broadcast of the Saftas, the show was running extremely heavy, well beyond the two and a half hour allotted broadcast time and the production team was forced to make radical cuts while live on air."
"Unfortunately these unrehearsed edits resulted in miscommunication between backstage and production and what followed was an incorrect envelope being brought on stage. As the production team we take responsibility for the error and regret any distress it may have caused."
"As CMP we are honoured to have produced the industry awards and we look forward to contributing further and growing our industry. There are learnings we would like to share with the NFVF to mitigate this for future SAFTA productions."
