IN IMAGES. How kykNET created the SA film biz's first true 'Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty' - with 30 photos from inside.

by Thinus Ferreira

As DJ Criss let rip with tracks from across the decades on Saturday night, something quite unique - perhaps never to be repeated again - happened: The best awards show afterparty in South African television history ever, with kykNET's afterparty for its 1st Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film that felt exactly akin to the mythical Vanity Fair Oscars party.

If you were there, consider yourself extremely privileged. 

You were part of a life experience and bore witness to something that might very well never happen again. 

If you attended, you quite miraculously found yourself inside a glorious bubble that had exactly the ethereal pop culture quality that only America's entertainment biz has ever been able to create with its iconic Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty. 

Take a look at the black-and-white photos of the night and you'll see a magical moment in time captured in amazing images of an event that might very well never be duplicated at any South African awards show ever again. It's 2023 after all, and this is the first time it's ever happened.

The afterparty which will surely be buzzed about in future as legendary, took place on Saturday night in the Cape Town Convention Centre (CTICC) after the conclusion of kykNET's  1st Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film which served as the closer to its 11th Silwerskermfees that took place last week in Camps Bay.

The confluence of two unrelated kykNET decisions - unexpectedly and surprisingly - led to the most awe-inspiring party that South Africa's TV and film biz has ever seen: A Disneyland night of talent from in front of, and from behind the camera, and from all levels and spheres from within the industry, all dancing the night away until after midnight. 

Firstly, kykNET invited over a thousand people to the CTICC for the awards show - not just actors new and old, but producers, executives from across the vertical biz-building industry, directors, TV presenters, socialites, media and influencers and the press from editors to journalists, as well as everyone from TV channel bosses and commissioning editors and line producers and content execs to award-winning filmmakers and stylists.

Secondly, a golden wristband like to Charlie's chocolate factory, is all that was needed for access to the CTICC's massive Ballroom East venue on the first floor.

There was no VIP section and no VVIP section - no section within a section keeping those deemed more "worthy" away from those in the biz seem as less worthy.

With a DJ and a dance floor, kykNET created a completely egalitarian afterparty where an absolutely A-lister would dance right next to an up-and-coming hopeful, while DJ Criss played greatest hits like a remix of Journey's Don't Stop Believin'.

These two factors combined are exactly what made kykNET's Saturday night afterparty so special, enviable, completely unbelievable and exactly like the storied Vanity Fair Oscar Party: No VIP section but with enough people attending and funnelled into it that it brought a cross-section of the entire biz into it, creating an astounding microcosm dancefloor, rubbing shoulders together as equals, for a special few hours.

Black and white and Sikh, old and young, award-winner and TV presenter and executive producer danced next to Lourensa Eckard, next to Siv Ngesi, next to Binnelanders and Suidooster soap stars, next to tuxedo-clad men who stood alongside glittering women in evening wear.

Everyone was in the same room laughing and dancing and chatting - from Lynette Francis-Puren and Renaldo Schwarp to Brett Michael Innes, Terja Beney and Vinette Ebrahim to Dillon Windvogel, Ben Heyns, Marciel Hopkins, Liam Bosman, Ingrid Paulus Vraagom, Zane Meas and Ivan Botha to Sunday Times scribe Leonie Wagner - and many, many more.

Like the crosswalk in Times Square - like standing in Disneyland and feeling as if you're watching the faces you know from the entire world of South Africa's TV and film gliding past - the kykNET afterparty was truly an unprocessable moment.

Here were both the who's who and the will still be who's, all together in the same room with no airs and no pretence, with no couches and no cordoned-off areas for VIPs, truly just having fun for one night - something that neither the SAFTAs and the MAMAs, nor any sports awards, the SAMAs, the Mzansi Viewers' Choice Awards, Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards, Royalty Soapie Awards or Metro FM Music Awards have ever managed to get right or do in this way.

Keep your golden wristband if you still have it - it's a keepsake to a very unique occurrence.

Look at it and remember what's possible even in South Africa's fame-obsessed TV and film biz when the stars align and everyone is truly seen as equal in an industry where too many, too often, start to believe that they're too special to share the same dancefloor.

ALSO READ: 2023 Silwerskerm Film Festival | Day 1: How kykNET's pivot to include TV will support even more new voices.

ALSO READ: 2023 Silwerskerm Film Festival | Day 2: kykNET boss Waldimar Pelser on how it remains fits through adapting and colabs beyond Afrikaans.

ALSO READ: 2023 Silwerskerm Film Festival | Day 3: How too controversial reality TV literally becomes a turn-off.

ALSO READ: Hans Steek die Rubicon Oor and Donkerkos the big winners at 11th Silwerskermfees' 1st Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film.

ALSO READ: 2023 Silwerskerm Film Festival | Day 4: 5 reflections from the fest: Serious, uncertainty, new faces and the name not said.

2023 Silwerskerm Film Festival | Day 4: 5 reflections from the fest: Serious, uncertainty, new faces and the name not said.

by Thinus Ferreira

As 2023's edition of kykNET's annual 11th Silwerskermfees film festival drew to a close over the weekend after a week of premieres, film types chattering, and wine glasses clinking in Camps Bay in Cape Town as it rained outside, multiple questions kept swirling about the current state - and future - of South Africa's film and TV biz.

Here are five salient takeaway points to ponder:

1. Serious business

Maybe it was the early spring rains sifting down keeping everyone mostly hunkered down and the sundeck mostly empty, maybe it was the even more urgent need to network and pin down producers and execs for possible early dealmaking and shop talks and introductions at any available bistro table, but the film festival had an even more serious atmosphere than last year. 

Maybe Covid really changed everything.

Some of the late-night frivolity and somewhat party atmosphere was still present - mostly on display on Friday night - complete with a clubhouse DJ vibe on the window-fronted first floor of The Bay Hotel - but none of it was anything like the film fest's joie de vivre like previous years. 

Everywhere it was evident: people milling about were not really in the mood for superficial small talk - they were hanging around waiting for opportune open moments to try and strike while the iron is hot to make quick connections with deliberately sought-out industry types for quick chats, selling themselves and their potential projects and getting numbers into phones.

An on-property "treasure hunt" for a little treasure chest on Thursday tied to the screening of an upcoming new kykNET reality competition show - a neat idea that had the potential to create some communal excitement and buzz at the festival - was quickly over before it even began.

The Silwerskerm film festival is still fun but more than ever everyone attending are focused on fast and furious connection.

2. Programme schedule

This year's Silwerskermfees felt like those who attended never really got the really specific answers they came to seek. 

Maybe there are no answers yet, or no easy answers to be found. Q&A time during and after panel sessions were the most limited and short it's ever been - or was non-existent - as sessions ran out of time.

As South Africa's film biz and creatives are looking for answers from those holding the purse strings and controlling commissioning budgets, answers remained overall elusive and vague. 

With heightened anxiety in a difficult economy about a future with AI, streaming services and where and how everything fit in and together, creatives got vague answers like "we're not looking for niche", "we're looking for new ideas", "we're not looking for what others are doing", "we're looking for edgy", "we want content that resonates with our audience". 

Programme schedule-wise, people complained about and whispered about kykNET's lack of a physical, printed film festival schedule booklet guide this year - something they say work better than just an app, to look up and read schedules and film information and that a real booklet is simply more practical as a quick pull-out.

While the schedule had interesting panels, unlike previous years where panels had more varied experts, panels this year comprised mostly MultiChoice and M-Net execs. It meant festivalgoers got mostly the MultiChoice and M-Net as company talking points - with a lesser emphasis on industry-wider perspectives.

In previous years there were more panel sessions with more general topics under discussion at the film festival - how to finance your film, insurance, securing film locations and general film biz-focused panels. 

These made way for more thematically themed sessions centred around what MultiChoice and M-Net are doing within the content space and what they are looking for.

3. An influx of new faces

Publicists and actors who became producers, execs who became consultants, first-time female directors, new stars, new filmmakers, and old faces venturing into new chapters: The 11th Silwerskermfees was filled with fresh faces trying new things.

The most exciting thing about the Silwerskerm festival is probably its core aim - in which it remains very successful: Making the circle bigger and bringing in new voices, new images, new talent behind and in front of the screen and new hope into what can often be a jaded industry outlook. 

With new films and series - telling new and varied stories set in new and some rarely-shown places - the blue carpet at this year's Bay Hotel saw hundreds of new sets of feet making their way to the Rotunda for premieres, screenings and panel sessions. 

The addition for the first time in its existence of TV to the film festival, also helped to bring an added new dimension as well as new first-time visitors and stars (one from as far as Amsterdam with Trix Viviers starring in Juffrou X). 

So too did the the addition of TV categories for kykNET television shows to the annual awards ceremony.

4. The name not said

Like out of Harry Potter, the elephant in the room - as in previous years - remains the word "Netflix".  You can use the F-word, just politely please try and refrain from using use the N-word.

Even M-Net director of premium channels Waldimar Pelser, in a panel session literally made a mention about "viewers happy to stay with us than being promiscuous and going onto an unnamed streaming platform that's not in the room".

It's not that Netflix scares everyone like a Voldemort. 

It's that its gigantic influence - also in Africa and in South Africa - looms large over the existing TV and film industry and the traditional pay-TV industry which is having to play catch-up here, as they are in the United States and other markets.

What the future will be for TV in local markets where global streamers are increasing their influence and popularity, remains to be seen. It's also that broadcasters, producers and talent have to try and navigate a whole new uncertain world where decisions must be made without a lot of answers and without a lot of information, while the industry's tectonic plates are felt shifting.

5. Awards improvement but ...

kykNET for the first time added TV category winners to its awards show for its Silwerskermfees and renamed it. 

It's now known as the Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film and it's a great change. There are however more Afrikaans television than just kykNET Afrikaans.

For a first time, the inaugural edition of the Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film was wonderful but of course it can and will be improved further with more refinements and tweaking as the years go by.

kykNET would do well - and it would do and serve the entire industry well - by making the Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film more inclusive of Afrikaans television in its totality than by keeping Afrikaans television on other platforms deliberately locked out.

kykNET can - and should - add Afrikaans television to the nominees list, from wherever it is found and available: SABC2, VIA, YouTube, TikTok and more.

Opening the door to celebrate Afrikaans video content wherever it's found won't make kykNET seem smaller or ever lead to "the others" stealing all of the prizes - in fact, it will make kykNET appear even bigger, more gracious, more supportive and something like the Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film even more credible and representative of everything Afrikaans TV.

It was already quite encouraging how multiple people who present shows on SABC2 and VIA and who make shows for SABC2 and VIA and are producers and executives behind the scenes actually attended the 1st Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film on Saturday night. 

Their content might not have been "eligible" but they were there, are there and they're all working towards the same common goal: the Afrikaans TV viewer and content consumer. 

They deserve the same recognition for wherever deserving work is done and kykNET sprinkling the TV fairy-dust when it comes to award prizes a little bit wider will further enhance kykNET's stature but also benefit Afrikaans television in its broadest form even more.

Hans Steek die Rubicon Oor and Donkerkos the big winners at 11th Silwerskermfees' 1st Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film.

by Thinus Ferreira

The film Hans Steek die Rubicon Oor and the Showmax series Donkerbos each won three awards on Saturday night at kykNET's 1st Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film with lifetime contribution awards which were bestowed on newsman Freek Robinson, actor Cedwyn Joel and producer André Scholtz.

The bookend of the 11th kykNET Silwerskermfees film festival which took place this week in Camps Bay, Cape Town was the rebranded Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film which replaced the festival's competition and was enlarged to include TV categories for the first time with Afrikaans nominees from MultiChoice's kykNET and Showmax stables. 

With the addition of TV stars, the 1st Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film which took place at the Cape Town International Conference Centre (CTICC) was the biggest awards show in the film festival's history with an unending stream of stars who lined the blue carpet before the ceremony started, followed by an incredible afterparty afterwards in one of the adjacent ballrooms which stretched into the late hours of the night. 

Hans Steek die Rubicon Oor, die film version of Rudie van Rensburg's book which will be released in theatres on 29 September, won the best feature film award on Saturday night with the main award show which will be broadcast on kykNET (DStv 144) tonight at 20:00.

Besides the best film award, Hans Steek die Rubicon Oor also snagged a glass award for Pierre van Pletzen as best actor for his role of Hans, while Corné van Rooyen from  Red Letter Day Pictures that produced the film, won for best director.

Edwin van der Walt won best actor in a drama series and Erica Wessels snagged the win for best actress in a drama series for the Showmax series Donkerbos, while Nicole Holm won for best supporting role in a drama series for her performance in the show.

Here's Saturday night's list of winners:

Best actor in a comedy: Desiré Gardner (Magda Louw)

Best actor in a drama: Edwin van der Walt (Donkerbos)

Best actress in a drama: Erica Wessels (Donkerbos)

Best supporting role in a drama: Nicole Holm (Donkerbos)

Best actor in a telenovela or soap: Dan-Jacques Mouton (Arendsvlei)

Best actress in a telenovela or soap: Cindy Swanepoel (Binnelanders)

Best villain in a telenovela or soap: André Odendaal (Binnelanders)

Best newcomer in a telenovela or soap: Devonecia Swartz (Arendsvlei)

Best presenter in a magazine programme: Hannes van Wyk (Kwêla)

Best presenter in a lifestyle programme: Nataniël (Nataniël. Erik. Wolf.)

Best presenter in a reality programme: Bertus Basson (In Die Sop!)

Best presenter in an actuality programme: Lourensa Eckard (In Gesprek)

Best presenter in a game show: Rian van Heerden (Wie word ’n miljoenêr)

Best presenter in a talk show: Heindrich Wyngaard (KLOP!)

Best presenter in an outdoor activity program: Dewald Visser (Mal Kamper)

Best presenter in a cooking programme: Alfred Adriaan (Roer)

Best ensemble presenting team: L’at Wiel

Best TV moment of the year: Mr. and Mrs. Samsodien get married (Suidooster)

Personality of the year: Jonathan Rubain (Koortjies)

Best TV film: Vuurdoop

Lifetime achievement: Cedwyn Joel, Freek Robinson, André Scholtz 

*By Sunday morning kykNET hasn't sent out any press releases or winners' lists regarding Saturday afternoon's technical awards or Saturday night's awards.

2023 Silwerskerm Film Festival | Day 3: How too controversial reality TV literally becomes a turn-off.

by Thinus Ferreira

As more producers globally as well as in South Africa are enticed by the lure of especially the reality TV genre to create real-life drama on the small screen, they are being warned not to push in-show controversy too far since on-screen fights and uncomfortable viewing don't always lift ratings and in fact could alienate viewers who flip to another channel.

"In the current climate of the golden age of television and where feature films don't make the money at the box office that they did before, it's likely not such a bad idea to consider reality television as an additional income," says Marguerite Albrecht, a commissioning editor for reality content at MultiChoice and M-Net.

She was one of the panellists at a discussion about the new era of reality TV at kykNET's 11th Silwerskermfees film festival currently taking place at The Bay Hotel in Camps Bay, Cape Town where the pivot from traditional reality TV, reality competition television and docudrama were discussed.

Marguerite Albrecht said that producers who previously never would have considered this genre, are not warming to what used to be TV's "stepchild".

Terja Beney, senior manager for reality and entertainment for M-Net's premium channels, said that "any filmmaker at their heart is a storyteller and storytelling - whether in the genre of documentary, whether in the genre of scripted. Story is at the heart of reality as well".

"If you can tell a story and if you love telling stories, then you can flourish in the unscripted genre as well, especially in the reality space".

Marguerite Albrecht said that M-Net and kykNET are first and foremost TV platforms "and our budgets first and foremost go towards making television. For that reason reality is a good option for any filmmaker."

Terja Beney however warned reality TV producers and said they should be careful with how they present real-life drama, since buzz over certain moments or televised events, might not actually lead to ratings.

"It's an interesting conversation to have about talkability versus ratings. Sometimes 'talkability' is talkable because it has a push-factor. People are talking because they're uncomfortable about things. Sometimes uncomfortability however extends to a drop in your TV ratings and not necessarily a push in your rating."

"In what you're putting forward is: How controversial are you being, and what really is the appetite for that controversial content that you're putting out?"

Marguerite Albrecht says the new era of reality TV is just an evolution of what producers, broadcasters and viewers already know.

"Internationally we're starting to see a nice blend of different mechanics from different reality formats coming together. They're blending in a logical way."

"It's not like 'I want a tribal council thing at the end like Survivor. I want a bit of Wipeout in the middle. And the whole first section is just docu-reality.' No. That makes no sense."

Marguerite Albrecht said it's an open question as to whether the news media, like broadcasters, should adopt what the industry calls a "duty of care" in their approach of reality show participants, after the negative media coverage that engulfed the women who chose to take part in kykNET's Die Real Housewives van die Wynlande which had its first season on DStv earlier this year. 

2023 Silwerskerm Film Festival | Day 2: kykNET boss Waldimar Pelser on how it remains fits through adapting and colabs beyond Afrikaans.

by Thinus Ferreira

A film festival like kykNET's 11th Silwerskermfees film festival currently taking place at The Bay Hotel in Camps Bay remains fit for purpose by forever adapting to changing needs - especially through ever-bigger networking and collaboration in ideas and projects beyond just Afrikaans.

In this quest, kykNET through its Silwerskermfees is adamant and focused on finding and supporting new voices and new talent.

So says Waldimar Pelser, M-Net director for premium channels, who spoke with me on the sidelines of the annual Rotunda-set film fest showcase where TV is officially incorporated this year for the first time, short film documentaries have been expanded into, and festivalgoers and filmmakers come from a far broader background than just Afrikaans, to look, listen and learn.

"The one thing everyone in South Africa's TV and film industry celebrates unequivocally is when local South African content is produced," he says.

"Every time local content is produced it means local jobs, local boost for the economy, local upskilling and local stories. Because it's local content, storytellers and producers and writers are digging locally for our own stories - for what the themes and subjects are that need to be told," Waldimar says.

"Rarely is it about in what language local content is being made in - it's about using local casts and talent and local production crews. In terms of Afrikaans content on kykNET, there's a multitude of talent and crew working on these local productions who are not mother tongue Afrikaans speakers."

Waldimar Pelser says that "Jordy Sank who at the 2022 Silwerskermfees last year won for best short film at the film festival isn't Afrikaans, for instance".

"There are numerous examples like that. What's refreshing is that it shows and proves that it's all about the art form. Of course, when you're producing Afrikaans content you're going to have someone Afrikaans as part of that - who understands three things: the language, the idiom and the audience."

"To produce and deliver successful content in Afrikaans for the screen you have to understand those three things. The collaboration between content producers from across cultures, traditions, languages and language traditions and idioms s a wonderful thing. It enriches the product - even if the focus of the content is in Afrikaans."

Waldimar Pelser explains that "Summertide which will start principal photography next week in Cape Town as a new M-Net (DStv 101) drama series which will be on air from January 2023, is produced by a team who had their start at the kykNET Silwerskermfees - Corné and René van Rooyen's Red Letter Day Pictures."

"They've gone on to produce the drama series Alles Malan for kykNET."

"Now they've made the jump to local content for one of MultiChoice and M-Net's other local TV channels. There's almost not a team that achieved at the Silwerskermfees over the previous years, who haven't gone on to produce content elsewhere for others as well. That's a plus on every level, for everyone, across the industry."

Silwerskermfees: looking to solve local challenges

Waldimar Pelser says the kykNET Silwerskermfees is constantly keeping an eye on what global film festivals are doing "but our questioning never starts far from home - we start by asking what issue are we trying to solve for kykNET and M-Net but also more broadly for the entire South African film and TV biz".

"Last year when we said we were looking for the Silwerskermfees to also be a driver and stimulant  for TV - after that we noticed that some festivals have switched to become hybrid-format festivals - like SXSW ("SouthBySouthWest") in Austin, Texas."

'It's never been a classic film festival but looks at content generation and ideas. Film festivals that remain fit constantly, successfully accomplish two things: Firstly, they keep asking themselves what's the new and latest context locally that the film festival has to react to."

"Secondly, a film festival has to look at what happens elsewhere - and in this order."

"A massive range of stakeholders attend kykNET's Silwerskermfees and are again doing so this year. If you want to learn more it's the place to be. It's veterans from the biz to icons in news and current affairs, producers, filmmakers from the entire gamut of the spectrum. It's a very, very interesting mix."

"Thanks to broadening into the TV sphere we have film and TV cast and crew. In the real world, these people often mix since you see the same faces on the small screen and big screen and behind-the-scenes everyone works everywhere. So while people sometimes see it as two separate worlds, in blending them together, people are seeing opportunities."

"People who have the luxury of honing their careers in purely just the one of the other you can count on one hand. We don't have that luxury as South Africa's industry. It's an indication that people see in the Silwerskermfees something interesting but also something valuable."

"I really hope that at the end of these four days Silwerskermfees film festivalgoers will say: 'This was lekker. I've met new people. I got a phone number. I gave my number to a few people. Let's see what collaborations it leads to in the future."

Find and help the new people

Why kykNET is helping aspiring and upcoming producers with educational sessions on how to pitch projects properly to broadcasters and TV channels, Waldimar Pelser says the danger is that successful people or producers end up with all of the work.

"It's like that because you work with tight budgets which are still big budgets. You can't waste money. It's not little money. It's always too little money but it's still big amounts."

"The responsibility is on everyone having to make these very difficult decisions on what content is commissioned, to not fail. So there's a structural incentive to go with trusted, proven production companies."

"While it's logical, the doors must remain open for new voices and new talent. The demand for this has been huge. There are a lot of people who really want an opportunity. The model of kykNET's Silwerskermfees has always been to find the new people."

"Let us see what a first-time content creator can do with a bit of encouragement and some mentorship. We're building on that model. That's why the 'how to pitch to us' sessions are full - we're keeping the doors open for more people to enter, but to help the best to succeed."

"Not everyone is going to go on and create content but it's in the industry's benefit that the best ones are identified, know-how, and get a helping hand to say 'this is your first time - here's a bit of advice'. The Silwerskermfees will never be about always just the same old people getting commissioned," says Waldimar.

"The big demand says there are still many, many people in South Africa who want to come into the fold of the local South African film and TV industry but are just a bit unsure of exactly how to go about it. This film festival is for all of them".

2023 Silwerskerm Film Festival | Day 1: How kykNET's pivot to include TV will support even more new voices.

by Thinus Ferreira

Ninety-nine years since The Rotunda in Camps Bay was built in 1904, the movers, shakers and moviemakers in South Africa's film biz will once again descend from today on the oldest single-story dome construction in Cape Town for kykNET's 11th Silwerskermfees film festival held in Cape Town.

The Bay Hotel's glass-lined azure pool, ensconced just beyond the palm-tree-lined Victoria Road, once again beckons the wide array of new and longtime film and TV industry professionals who are all coming together to network, pitch, watch new films and series, talk shop and take tentative steps towards possible dealmaking while the first spring rains sift from the Cape Town sky.

As the most visitors yet for this annual film festival - held under the aegis of MultiChoice and M-Net's Afrikaans content division - gather this week at the seaside resort suburb colloquially called "Cannes in Cape Town", a lot of the hubbub at the Silwerskermfees this year is around its pivot to broaden and include television.

While TV's wheelers and dealers have always been present at the Silwerskermfilmfees, kykNET is formally incorporating TV into its weeklong schedule for the first time this year, similar to how the Berlin International Film Festival and others globally have given a window at their festivals to the big and small screen alike.

In a first, festivalgoers and the media will get to attend screenings of three TV pilots of upcoming series on kykNET and MultiChoice's Showmax streamer: Die Brug, Juffrou X and Spinners.

Spinners for instance - a gritty Cape Flats set drama series about a teenager motor car racer trying to escape a culture of gang violence - as a Showmax Original co-production with Canal+, is the first such type of co-production of its kind in South Africa.

"Several of the big festivals have expanded to include TV," Nicola van Niekerk, MultiChoice's head of premium content and co-productions, tells TVwithThinus.

"Something like SXSW ("South by Southwest") in Austin, Texas is the idea and direction we want to take the Silwerskermfees and what we want to grow it into in the future."

"SXSW is for movies, documentaries, for TV, for digital content - it's a content creator market and that's what we're moving towards with Silwerskerm - for anything made and done in Afrikaans. For all of that kykNET is planting and raising the flag."

No film festival remains static, says Waldimar Pelser, M-Net director for premium channels, who tells TVwithThinus he's looking forward to seeing the reaction from festivalgoers to this year's expanded content slate.

"We remain committed to film but have expanded into including short documentary films. It's the first time we're moving beyond scripted at the fest and I'm looking forward to seeing whether there are local filmmakers seeing a future for themselves within this genre."

"The other expansion is to selectively include TV as part of the festival," he says.

"Our dream is - as has been the case with the film festival over the past decade - to look back a few years from now and be able to point to producers and other talent who will then be making shows for kykNET and other places, who were able to benefit from mentorship at the festival or got help to compile something like a pitch deck for their proposals."

Pitching support in big demand

At the year's film fest, a master class on directing, as well as multiple sessions and workshops - including specific "pitch to us" sessions for drama series, documentaries, as well as reality and entertainment - all offering help for how to properly do better pitches  - have all been fully booked for weeks before the start of the festival today.

"If I had a rand for every producer who's said to me 'We've submitted so many pitches and we constantly just get no upon no I would be a millionaire by now," says Nicola.

"Everybody wants to make television. We see about 2 000 submissions at M-Net per month. If your pitch document and how you're telling your story within those first few pages are not done correctly, you're lessening your chances tremendously to be successful."

"We just thought about these people submitting time and time after time and they're not successful - yet they have everything that's needed and required. But they don't know how a proper pitch document is supposed to look. They don't know how to talk during a pitch meeting and how to sell their idea."

"We thought: Let's start to help the wider industry with this as well because eventually it will help everyone. Otherwise you keep getting no, no, no from people and there's no growth."

Nicola says kykNET and the wider industry are looking for new talent.

"We thought: Let us help up-and-coming talent to enable them to communicate their ideas better to executives. It's exactly because it is so difficult that people are so interested in attending the Silwerskermfees to come and learn how to be better at it."

Nicola says the 11th Silwerskermfees will definitely be the biggest one yet in terms of attendees. 

"We've registered more people than ever before. That we're opening it up to television as well, is bringing even more people into the fold. In 10 years of this festival we've never had a waiting list before which we have this year for the first time." 

SA film biz is alive with possibilities

"That there are five new feature-length films in Afrikaans making their debut at this year's 11th Silwerskermfees is an absolute blessing for the industry and for viewers," says Nicola van Niekerk.

"With some, it was down to the line that some might not have been ready in time. I'm just so glad about the quality. We also tried to build and establish some new business models around these films so that it's worthwhile for everyone," she says.

"What people don't realise - and what remains challenging - is for Afrikaans films to get made in South Africa. Afrikaans consumers have always been very loyal, going to the cinema to go and watch and support Afrikaans film. But with the Covid pandemic that machine broke," she explains.

For her, kykNET's Silwerskermfees film festival continues to help create buzz and to build excitement around the intangible quality of perception that South Africa's industry remains vibrant and worthwhile. 

"The Silwerskerm film festival brings people together and focuses the excitement about making film and television, and how great it is to work in film and television in South Africa despite its many challenges," she says.

"Something like Silwerskerm helps to keep the local film biz alive - not just Afrikaans film but the entire spectrum of the value chain. It keeps it going."

"It's also a showcase for the global biz of what South Africa has and can do - to show the world that they can come here and film and do their projects here," she says.

"We have everything that's needed. We've built it. We've created it. We're not resting on our laurels. South Africa's film industry exists and the Silwerskermfees is the showcase that it's alive."

The grey and the gone to steal the limelight at kykNET's 11th Silwerskermfees.

Thinus Ferreira

It's a foregone conclusion that the biggest buzz on the blue carpet at the 11th kykNET Silwerskermfees film festival this year will revolve around a few grey legends and a shocking empty space.

When kykNET's annual film festival kicks off in Cape Town on Wednesday it will be the silver-haired cast of Hans Steek die Rubicon Oor (Hans Crosses the Rubicon) who will be stealing the spotlight, as well as Frankie & Felipé's Bradley Olivier who died last month. 

While it's usually the wrinkle-free faces in South Africa's film and TV biz capturing the clicks of the cameras, it's a new film with a few Afrikaans golden oldies - as well as a soap star who is suddenly no longer there - who will largely monopolise the media attention this year.

Demarcated media space next to the blue carpet is already hard to come by and seats in the Bay-hotel's Rotunda even less for Wednesday's Silwerskermfees première of Hans Steek die Rubicon Oor with veteran actors Pierre van Pletzen, Tobie Cronjé, June van Merch and Sandra Prinsloo.

The film from the filmmaking pair Corné and René van Rooyen's Red Letter Day Pictures who are also responsible for the script and directing, is based on crime writer Rudie van Rensburg's similarly titled book which was a massive hit on radio as an Afrikaans serial read by Cronjé on the SABC's RSG.

Now a hilarious Van Pletzen plays the obstinate and creative 90-year-old Hans, dumped in the old-age home Huis Carpe Diem by his estranged daughter from which he hatches plans to escape. It's here where the energetic senior citizen causes chaos with everything from cannabis cakes to strippers and even leads an old-age revolt under the residents.

In the big screen version, Cronjé plays Vasie, with June van Merch as Baby, Sandra Prinsloo as Liesbet and Nicola Hanekom as the militant Matron who is a retired jail warden.

The kykNET Films movie opens on 29 September at cinemas with the top billing stars in this feisty adventure comedy caper who are older than 70 but are expected to pull family audiences from young to old to cinemas.

The other feature film that will demand attention is the heartfelt comedy Frankie & Felipé due to the main co-star whose place on the blue carpet will be conspicuously empty.

Bradley Olivier (36), known as the paramedic Danny in kykNET's Binnelanders soap unexpectedly passed away last month from a brain aneurysm.

Olivier, in a powerful performance as Franklin Blaze, appears alongside comedian Solomon Cupido as Felipé in this comedy - the first film they've made under their Sturvey Pictures production banner. Besides co-producers, they were also co-writers of the film together with the Safta award-winning scriptwriter Brett Michael Innes.

In the film with Marvin-Lee Beukes as director, the two adult half brothers reunite just before Frankie's upcoming wedding, with the dodgy Felipé who owes some unscrupulous characters money and now risks tarnishing Frankie's reputation as a successful businessman.

Kim Syster is seen as Frankie's fiance, with Zane Meas and Ilse Klink as the future inlaws.

At Thursday's Silwerskermfees debut of Frankie & Felipé the media will have a lot of questions for his co-stars about Olivier, with the stars who will have to walk a fine line with valiant smiles to try and prevent a melancholic première atmosphere.

This year's Silwerskermfees film festival will include for the first time also the premières of six documentary films which were developed and produced by kykNET as part of a mentorship programme with Idea Candy.

The documentaries include Besmet, Born Behind Bars, Call of the Wild, Langafstand, 'n Gids vir Louzanne and Teater na die Mense.

Besides vyf new feature films, 14 short films and the six documentaries, the pilot episodes of upcoming new local TV series will also be shown to the media for the first time at the festival.

These include Die Brug, kykNET's new reality competition show done by Red Pepper Pictures, as well as the gritty new kykNET drama series Juffrou X headlined by Trix Viviers and set at the fictional and problem-filled Victory Heights high school.

Then there's also Spinners, a new drama series from MultiChoice's Showmax video streaming service that revolves around a rubber-circle burning drag racing teenager from the Cape Flats trying to escape a life of gangsterism through motorsport.

This year's Silwerskermfees award ceremony with a thousand invited guests will take place on Saturday evening in the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) where kykNET TV shows will also be included as category prizes and honoured.

The glitzy awards show will be broadcast on kykNET on Sunday night.

kykNET 11th Silwerskermfees: Film fest slate expands with TV premieres and CTICC award show categories

by Thinus Ferreira

kykNET is expanding the content slate of its 11th Silwerskermfees to television and is set to premiere pilot episodes of new upcoming TV series while its awards show which is moving to the Cape Town International Conference Centre that is expanding to include categories for top TV productions..

Set for four days from 23 August in Camps Bay, the film festival organised by M-Net's Afrikaans channels division - and colloquially referred to as "Cannes in Cape Town" with a blue carpet rolled out at the Bay Hotel and Theatre on the Bay - is moving its awards show this year for the first time to the Cape Town International Conference Centre (CTICC) on 26 August.

Besides a new collection for 2023 of feature films and short films supported financially and upskilling-wise as part of kykNET's ongoing annual push to grow South Africa's film industry and to support video content creation in Afrikaans, kykNET's Silwerskerm film festival has expanded into documentary support.

Similar to the festival's existing short film mentoring project, the Silwerskermfees is now also supporting producers to craft documentaries. For the first time ever the film festival will premiere the pilot episodes of upcoming new TV series made for pay-TV and video streaming services in August. 

The CTICC-held awards show will also include TV categories for the first time alongside film, with the awards show which will be broadcast the following night, Sunday 27 August on kykNET (DStv 144). The nominees for, and the various TV categories, will be announced at the end of June.

The competing films included in the film division of this year's awards ceremony include the five feature films, 14 short films and six documentaries which will all premiere during the film festival.

The feature films include Hans Steek die Rubicon Oor, Die Tragiese Saak van Pamina Vermaak, Fankie en Felipé, Blindelings and Old Righteous Blues.

The short films at this year's Silwerskermfees include Helmhart, Hier/daar, Die Swart Draak Ontwaak and animation and puppet work films including Straatrotte and Thrift tot die Dood. 

'n Doop chronicles the trauma of school initiation rites, with Dans dat die Biesies Bewe as well as Koors and Karen which are comedies. 

Volle Bors and As will premiere as dramatic short films, with the buzzy Een Saam tackling the subject of gender dysphoria. Werpsel is a thriller with Die Blokke putting a new spotlight on the gang violence in the Cape Flats.

The six short documentaries include Teater na die mense about the Cape Flats Players, the inspiring athlete profiles Langafstand and 'n Gids vir Louzanne. Call of the Wild is a profile about a bling young woman's journey of discovery through nature.

Besmet looks at how the African lion is threatened by poisoning with the arresting Born Behind Bars about a pregnant woman getting a 10-year jail sentence.