SA FILMS NOMINATED FOR OSCARS, BAFTAS AND PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICAS AWARDS

Two South Africa-themed, filmed-in-South Africa movies - sci-fi thriller District 9 and Nelson Mandela/Rugby World Cup drama Invictus - have together been nominated for six Oscar awards. 

Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood, won nominations for best actor for Morgan Freeman, who portrays Nelson Mandela in the film, and for best supporting actor for Matt Damon, who portrays Springbok rugby captain Francois Pienaar. The film tells the story of South Africa's 1995 Rugby World Cup victory on home turf, when then-president Nelson Mandela joined forces with Pienaar to help unite black and white South Africans after the fall of apartheid only a year before.

District 9, set in a South African township inhabited by aliens, received Academy Award nominations in four categories, namely: best picture, best editing, best adapted screenplay, and best visual effects. Directed by South Africa-born Neill Blomkamp, the film satirises the absurdities of apartheid in a science fiction account of extraterrestrials who become refugees in South Africa. The film was shot on location in Johannesburg and took the US box office by storm, earning the number-one spot and raking in US$37-million during its opening weekend in August 2009.

District 9 has also been nominated for 7 BAFTA Awards for best direction, cinematography, adapted screenplay, editing, production design, sound and special visual effects.

The BAFTA Awards takes place on February 21 and the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony is due to take place on 7 March. The Producers Guild of America awards took place on January 24.

Source: www.sagoodnews.co.za

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