Good News

BULLETIN 12 May

Good afternoon, here is your Good News:

# South African filmmaker Dian Weys says he hopes his short film’s selection for the 78th Cannes Film Festival in France will draw attention to the country’s film industry. Vultures (Aasvoëls) has been selected in the Short Film Competition with 11 others selected from over four-thousand entries. It stars Edwin van der Walt, Jill Levenberg, Albert Pretorius, and Oscar Petersen. South African director Oliver Hermanus’s The History of Sound will compete in the Feature Films Competition. The festival runs from tomorrow to the 24th of this month.

# Celebrated South African comedian Kurt Schoonraad is bringing his latest one-man show, Funny Side Up, to the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town from today until Saturday. The show sees the comedian tackling the absurdities of modern life, from navigating daily chaos to finding silver linings in an ever-changing world. Schoonraad says returning to the Baxter feels like a full-circle moment for him, as he had his first one-man show, Punchlines, on the very same stage 22 years ago. Tickets range from 180-rand to 200-rand.

# Award-winning veteran journalist Neels Jackson has been honoured by the University of Pretoria for his lifelong commitment to telling the evolving story of church and faith in South Africa. The 64-year-old, who worked at the newspaper Beeld for more than 23 years, was recently awarded the Chancellor’s Medal. The university says throughout his career, Jackson has been dedicated to capturing the complex relationship between faith, society and change, and doing so with clarity, fairness and humanity. 

# Salusiwe Mxayiya from Luhlaza High School in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, is representing South Africa at the International Science and Engineering Fair, currently underway in Columbus, Ohio in the US. Over one-thousand-800 learners from nearly every US state and more than 60 countries, regions, and territories will present their research projects. Salusiwe’s project investigates the infection rates of Hector’s lantern fish by the copepod parasite and the implications for population dynamics. She is one of four South African learners participating in the competition.

# And finally: Lenny James and Marisa Abela won the leading actor and actress awards at the BAFTA TV Awards in London. James was recognised for his role in Mr Loverman, for which Ariyon Bakare won supporting actor. Abela won for Industry. Jessica Gunning won supporting actress for her breakout role in Baby Reindeer, adding to her Emmy and a Golden Globe. Shōgun won the best international series. Kirsty Wark received the Television Fellowship award for her contribution to television as a trailblazing journalist and producer in news and current affairs.

Stay tuned for more news………….