KYKNET’S jam-packed 10th Silwerskerm Film Festival, taking place from March 23 – 26, boasts an impressive list of diverse movies. Besides the local feature film premieres and new local short films in competition, the festival includes a sizzling slate of recent films that includes works that have garnered widespread international recognition.
Among these existing works invited to be part of the festival are the 2022 Oscar-nominated documentary Writing with Fire and South African filmmaker Phumi Morare’s 2022 Student Academy-winning live short film Lakutshon’ Illanga (When the Sun Sets).
Festival-goers – who will either attend the Silwerskerm Film Festival in Camps Bay in person or enjoy the screenings virtually on the festival’s website – can look forward to watching Kariba Ledigo’s beautiful award-winning short film What Did You Dream? Another must-see is the headline-making short film about gender-based violence #WeAreDyingHere, of which Siya and Rachel Kolisi are the executive producers.
Writing with Fire, presented by Encounters, will be screened in the Theatre on the Bay at 11am, on Friday, 25 March, and on the festival’s online programme on Saturday, 26 March, at 7pm. This means everyone who has registered for the virtual festival will be able to watch the first Indian film to be nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Documentary Feature just three days before this year’s Oscar winners are announced.
This inspiring documentary, highlighting Khabar Lahariya, the only newspaper in India run by Dalit women (women belonging to an oppressed caste), has already garnered 21 gongs at prestigious award ceremonies around the globe. Its great festival run began with its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award and the Special Jury Award. Thereafter, the world’s most prominent critics and international newspapers have not stopped raving about the inspiring story of the influential female journalists who broke traditions with their smartphones in a cluttered news environment.
The 10th Silwerskerm Film Festival’s video-on-demand service will run from Wednesday, 23 March, at 9am, until midnight on Saturday, 26 March. The registration fee for the online festival is R190, which will be donated to the Tribuo Fund. Video-on-demand films will cost an additional R35 per ticket. For more information, click here.