Short film festival marks 10-year jubilee

Events planned for various venues across the city

THE shnit Worldwide Shortfilmfestival in Cape Town closed in style last night as VIP guests, film fans and film-makers celebrated the presentation of the festival’s South African awards in seven categories.

Two Audience Awards, the Grand Jury prize, and four Special Jury Award categories were presented during a ceremony that saw shnit 2019 jurors Dr John Kani, Lauren Beukes, Kagiso Lediga and Gaopie Kabe commend the standard of local film-making.

Jury and audience award winners received the coveted shnit National Faun trophy as well as prizes worth R30000 from Media Film Service and Final Draft, Inc.

Special jury prize winners received goods and service prizes from Rands from Media Film Service, The Writers’

 Guild of South Africa, renowned acting coach Tamryn Speirs, Sean Shannon Photography, and Final Draft, Inc.

Sibusiso Khuzwayo was the winner of the jury award for his The Letter Writer.

Timothy Gabb won the audience award for The Lost Carts of the Karoo.

Chantel Clark won the local flavour audience award for Ons Albertinia, while Kelsey Egan won the special jury award for The Bull; Rob Smith won best screenplay in a shnit short; Sean Steinberg and Matthew Jankes won best direction in a shnit short; and Bongi Ndaba won best performance in a shnit short.

The shnit International Awards will be presented at a ceremony in New York City later this year, while global award ceremonies took place in Bern, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Hong Kong, Moscow and San Jose.

shnit Cape Town, South Africa’s foremost event of its kind, is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. The festival opened at the Labia Theatre on October 17, and will close on Sunday.

Driven by a passion for locally produced cinema, excellence and embodying cultural exchange, diversity and originality, shnit Cape Town, like its global counterparts, screens high quality short films that have between one to 40 minutes to get the message across.

Numerous special events such as panel discussions and script readings will take place across the city at venues such as Isivivana Bertha House, Kelvin Corner, the Raptor Room, Selective Live and at 44 on Long.

“The festival is made possible by the support of the National Film and Video Foundation and the City of Cape Town,” organisers said.