The 2012 Cape Winelands Film Festival (CWFF) is proud to again present an unparalleled window on quality films from around the globe. The rich selection of world cinema includes more than 150 features, documentaries and shorts, all which have won more than 320 international awards.
The CWFF short film competition has developed into one of the most important film festival platforms in South Africa for quality productions from around the world. Movie lovers and film students should not miss out on the outstanding short films in the competition this year, especially the magnificent selection from Spain, Germany, Russia, Serbia, Belgium, USA, Italy and France.
Many of the films at the festival are pure celebration of music, art and other cultures through film. For samba lovers don't miss out on the documentary Samba Beats (Brazil) and if your music taste leans more towards hip hop then several documentaries like Hip Hop Nafitha (Jordan). For art lovers Porselynnkas Dokiementer (South Africa) and Pearls on the Ocean Floor (USA) is a must.
As a result of the CWFF’s outstanding programing, The International Film Guide has listed the festival as one of the leading film festivals in the world since 2010. Not bad for a festival, which only started in 2008 to fill the void left by the Cape Town World Cinema Festival.
The festival remains an important forum for South African cinema, The opening night film, LUCKY, directed by Avie Luthra and distributed by Indigenous Film Distribution , will have its South African premiere in the Opera House (Artscape) on 14 March 2012. More than 30 South African productions will compete in the festival for the South African Awards. South African films in competition include Otelo Burning directed and produced by Sara Blecher, Inside Story (Rolie Nikiwe) and Casting Me ( Quinton Lavery) among others.
The festival will again focus on the theme Reconciliation and Acceptance of “The Other”. The rich selection of outstanding features, documentaries and shorts include many films, which attempt to create a better understanding between human beings, to enhance respect for different ideological and religious viewpoints, as well as deconstructing stereotypes of the Other. Extraordinary films such as Moozlum, Out in the Silence, Insects in the Backyard, as well as Family Portrait in Black and White will be screened. A major topic in a lot of the films this year is the experiences of children, from sensitive coming of age films such as Lucky, North Sea Texas and Tomboy to the traumatic lives of children in war zones. We look at one million orphans in Iraq in the films In My Mother's Arms and Son of Babylon.
The organisers of the CWFF and the Consulate of Greece are honoured to pay tribute to the great Greek filmmaker Theodoros Angelopoulos (27 April 1935 – 24 January 2012) with a screening of one of his most famous films: Eternity and a Day. Angelopoulos recently passed away while working on latest film, The Other Sea, about Greece's financial crisis. While filming in Athens' main port, Piraeus, he was in an accident with a motorcycle as he crossed a road. He died later the same day in hospital.
The CWFF will also pay tribute to the Spanish master of cinema, Carlos Saura, who received a Lifetime achievement award at the 10th Mumbai International Film Festival in 2008. In a career spanning more than half a century, Carlos Saura, has always taken cinema to newer and more exciting heights. He is one filmmaker who refused to get tied down to a particular school of filmmaking and created cinema that bears the stamp of his “auteurship”.
The following films by Saura will be screened: Goya in Bordeaux (1999), is a visually stunning drama about the last days of Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Ay, Carmela! (1990), Saura’s film about Paulino and Carmela, husband and wife, troubadours touring the countryside during the Spanish Civil War, and his award-winning drama Elisa, vida mía (1977), starring Fernando Rey and Geraldine Chaplin.
Apart from selected screenings at Oude Libertas Auditorium and Amphitheatre, the 2012 edition will also see screenings at Nu Metro V&A Waterfront, iSibaya (Artscape), The Fugard Theatre and Protea Hotel Fire and Ice, (Bree Street) in the city centre of Cape Town.
