Saftas: ‘The Wife’ scores 10 nominations while Busi Lurayi is up for ‘Best Actress’

After a virtual announcement event, we finally know who the nominees for the 16th Annual South African Film & Television Awards (Saftas) are and fan-favourite show, The Wife, is among the productions that scored the highest amount of nominations. 

The launch took place online on Thursday, and was broadcast across all Saftas digital platforms. According to organisers, the event was hosted this way in line with this year’s theme; “Frame the Future”. 

The Saftas were established in 2005 to honour, celebrate, promote and reward the creativity, quality and excellence of South African film and television talent and content.

“This year’s nominees are truly an indication of the creativity, innovation and resilience of our local industry despite the trials that were faced since the onset of the pandemic,” said Saftas organisers in a statement. 

This year, the MultiChoice Group (MCG) dominates nominations with the continued success of long-term favourites gaining nods as well as relatively new entrants.

Some of the MCG nominees at this year’s Saftas include; The River, DAM and Tali’s Baby Diary which received an impressive 11 nominations each, while DiepCity and Suidooster earned 10 nominations each. G.I.L followed with 9 nods.

Showmax’s The Wife received 10 nominations including nominations for Bonko Khoza, Abdul Khoza and Zikhona Sodlaka in the Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories respectively.

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The SABC group received 6 nominations for Skeem Saam, 3 for 7 de Laan and a documentary which aired on SABC3 (S2) titled Murder in Paris received 4 nominations. 

Giyani: Land of Blood received 2 nominations.

Three new telenovelas also received Saftas nods – among them was S3’s newcomer, The Estate, which received 3 nods. 

eTV’s House of Zwide received 8 nominations while Scandal! received 9 nominations.

“The feature film leading this year’s nominations tally is Netflix’s I Am All Girls, which received 11 nominations across various categories such as Best Directing, Best Cinematography and Best Feature Film, while How To Ruin Christmas, Season 2 received an impressive 16 nominations.” 

This includes an acting nomination for recently deceased actress Busi Lurayi.

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ALSO READ: Reports of major shake-ups on ‘The Wife’

Makhosazana Khanyile, Chief Executive Officer of the National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF) declared this year’s motif ‘Frame the Future’, a call for the industry to work together in crafting a new path forward. 

“Last year, we faced our greatest challenge ever post-Covid19, this year, we celebrate the connectedness that helped us get through, while actively promoting optimism within our local industry.

“With the release of this year’s nominees, we are looking forward to a remarkable show that will showcase the creative innovation that our local industry has continued to display despite the circumstances that have been faced,” added Khanyile.

This year’s public voting categories, Best TV Presenter and Most Popular Soap/Telenovela include stiff competition, and all voting lines will be open on 1 August for votes to be cast. 

See the complete list of 2022 Saftas nominees below:

Saftas16 will take place on 2 and 3 September 2022 as a simulcast on S3 (SABC 3) and Mzansi Magic (DStv channel 161).

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