Kedibone, a film recently showcased on Netflix and has since received mixed reviews, has bagged its first award.

The film scored the best film award at the Septimius Awards in Amsterdam, beating seven other African productions like Silverton Siege, Amandla and I am All Girls. 

Kedibone, which is produced by Andrew Mahlangu and directed by his longtime friend Thomas Gumede, follows an aspiring actress from Soweto whose ambition and poverty gets her entangled in Joburg's dirty street life; and has thespians Natasha Tahane and Wright Ngubeni at the helm of telling this narrative. 

Speaking to Mahlangu, who received the award on behalf of the team, he shared that this success of a film that was initially released four years ago, is affirmation that they are telling stories that the world is ready to hear. 

“We really put our souls out there to be able to tell this story, working with no budget at the beginning but because we believed in the story, we persevered,” he said. 

The organisers of the fairly new awards, hosting its first edition this past week, got in contact with Mahlangu in 2020 after seeing Kedibone and requested that they participate in the nominations processes. The film bagged three nominations in total, including the best African actress for Tahane which was subsequently won by local actress Nqobile Khumalo for her role in Uncovered, and best African actor for Wright Ngubeni which was taken by Nigerian actor Stan Nze. 

“The African film space is not hugely recognised in Europe, so this opportunity expands our horizon and exposes us to global competition. In the grander scheme of things, being recognised in other parts of the world is a great achievement. I mean, it already means the world to us when we are recognised in our own country and continent, but knowing that our work is appreciated is just phenomenal,” he said. 

According to Mahlangu, this award has also opened up collaboration opportunities for him with Dutch film creatives and is currently working on a project that will cross both African and the Netherlands' borders. 

“Since the Netherlands officially launched its incentive for young filmmakers, especially independent producers who get a grant for work done in South Africa and in Amsterdam, they’ve been looking for a link. I guess I have become that link where we are able to tell stories across two spaces. This film will be based on a South African story, and I will be representing Mzansi’s side as the production company. 

“This is also a great opportunity for further collaborations for our country,” he said. 

Returning home today, Mahlangu will be focusing on his next film CosmoCity with Ngubeni.

“The feature film, which zooms into how corruption affects communities and is meant for television, is already done and we are just negotiating platforms that can carry the production.”

Speaking to Jan Willema, the founder of the awards, he said they were inspired to establish the awards after realising that there is a lack of diversity and a cultural bias with most awards ceremonies.

“To reduce this cultural bias, we decided that for three categories (best  actor, actress and film) we will split those into continents, mainly Europe, Africa, American, Asian and Oceanian – which is a continent that includes New Zealand, Australia and the islands around. 

The winning films and thespians are decided by an internal panel, based on originality and creativity. 

“What we liked about Kedibone is that it’s a difficult, unique film to create. Most films when you present them to studios or investors [they] are normally romantic comedies  or action films. Kedibone was difficult to make because it isn’t a popular genre, drama and our award ceremony exists specifically for that – to shine a light on such projects. 

“When I spoke to the producer after the awards, he shared the difficulties faced in producing this film, and those are the kind of things that we want to highlight. Films and projects that are underrepresented.

"We applaud them for making this film that would not normally get hyped over the others. We wanted to award the challenging films that have a message and that is our perspective on Kedibone.”