The film boasts big local acting talent, including Kenneth Nkosi, Rapulana Seiphemo, Casey B Dolan and Kurt Schoonraad

THE South African movie Skeem snatched the prestigious Audience's Choice Award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival at the weekend.

Skeem faced tough competition from movies made by reputed names in the industry such as Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders, George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh, Werner Hertzog and Terry Gilliam.

"It was such a great honour just to be included," said producer Zaheer Goodman-Bhyat.

"To win the audience award is a dream come true. To think that our local comedy film can travel and can be relevant to a global audience and compete successfully with the best films in the world gives me hope for the future of South African films."

"If you look at the cast lists of the films we were competing with, they're all A-list Hollywood celebs. It just makes me feel so proud of our local talent."

Skeem was written and directed by innovative filmmaker Tim Greene, who said: "I set out to make a film that people would want to see, so to know they enjoyed it is immensely gratifying."

The film boasts big local acting talent, including Grant Swanby, Kenneth Nkosi, Rapulana Seiphemo, Casey B Dolan, Terence Bridgett, Zikhona Sodlaka, David Isaacs and Kurt Schoonraad.

It will be released in SA cinemas on October 28.

Greene was hailed by his colleagues in 2003 when he convinced 1000 people to each invest R1000 in his first feature film, Boy called Twist.

The film did well internationally, including at the Cannes Film Festival that year.