Film fest wraps up
The inaugural Knysna Film Festival concluded last Saturday after four days of silver-screen action, with The Recce claiming the most prizes at the festival's awards evening.
The film festival took place last week, with more than 100 screenings of films taking place at the 11 cinema locations over the course of the four days. While the festival's organisers did aim big, festival director Patrick Walton said they did so with a purpose. "We wanted to go as big as we could this year, so that we could put the feelers out and see what works at the festival," Walton said.
This paid off according to Walton who, at the closing event at the Premier Resort Hotel the Moorings, mentioned they as the organisers had conducted a number of meetings with stakeholders for future festivals during the week. He also said they learnt a lot from this inaugural event, and that he had received a lot of positive and constructive criticism and feedback, with one person going so far as to say Knysna could become the home of the South
African version of the Cannes Film Festival.
The closing event welcomed about 100 guests and delegates, including a small municipal representation, for an awards evening during which the winners in a number of categories were announced after a panel of judges had poured over the hours of footage entered into competition for the festival. While many recipients were unable to make it for the event, 19 awards were handed out on the evening in both short and feature-film categories.
With its five awards, The Recce scooped up the most accolades in the feature-film section and overall, while De Deur was in close second overall, and first in the shortfilm section with four awards. The six top film awards were handed out as follows: Best Student Film – Simply Ben; Best Film Director (Short Film) – Janhendrik Burger (for De Deur); Best Short Film – De Deur; Best Film Director (Feature Length) – Johannes Ferdinand van Zyl (for The Recce); Best Documentary Film – Buddha in Africa; and Best Film – The Recce.