Curious GP & Winners: Luscious Dozi (Finalist), Mariki Vand Der Walt (Head of Production, Curious Pictures), Ian Jacksom (finalist), Sarah Jurgens (SANTF Producer), Sbu Zuma (Winner) Keobogile Grace Moaisi (winner), Kagiso Mako (finalist), Harriet Gavshon (MD, Curious Pictures, Front: Sihle Ngcamu (winner), Kirsty Galliard (MD General post), JP Potgieter (Producer, Curious Pictures)

Curious Pictures and General Post are proud to announce the winners of South Africa’s Next Top Filmmaker 2011.

Congratulations to Sbu Zuma and Sihle Ngcamu for “What’s In A Name” and Keolebongile Moaisi for “The Intersection”. They will all be awarded a paid internship at Curious Pictures in 2012.

The winners were announced last night at a prestigious event at Maximillien Restaurant in Sandton attended by the who’s who of the South African Film Industry.

This is the second year that General Post have run this competition and this year we were very priveleged to partner with Curious Pictures, one of South Africa’s top production companies and the people behind the much anticipated Masterchef South Africa.

Say’s JP Potgieter, acting Head Of Production at Curious Pictures, “It’s been a great experience for Curious Pictures to be involved in this initiative. This is the first year that we are involved in the competition and we are very excited about the process and all of the finalists that we had the pleasure of working with.

We were so lucky to work with young people that really cared about their stories and would do almost anything to get them told. At Curious Pictures we have always believed in giving young talent a break and a helping hand; and a shoulder when it’s needed.”

Judging for this competition was done on two levels. We invited three industry judges, Executive Producer Harriet Gavshon, Director/Writer John Trengrove and Creative Director Rolie Nikiwe, each of whom had no inlovement in the production of the films. Judges scored the five films on criteria such as story, creativity and final execution. In an effort to find a well-rounded film maker, we also asked the production team to judge the finalists on criteria like organizational skills, pre-production processes and on set management skills. When the scores were added up we realised that all five films were seperated by very small margin. At that point, Curious Pictures generously decided to award not just one internship prize but two, one for best creative film and one for the best produced film.

• Digital Film, who sponsored all the camera lighting and grips equipment and who gave our finalists so much more than was originally negotiated.
• iKhaya, who gave each finalist R5000 worth of wardrobe as well as invaluable advice and help
• Warren Burley at Finetune Audio who did all the final mixes for us. His advice and guidance was pivotal to the quality of the final products.
• The Bladeworks who sponsored the grade in Baselight. Thanks for your support, you’re always willing to come on board and help!
• To Owen Kessel & Tanqueray for sponsoring some mean Mojito’s as welcome drinks last night.
• A special thanks goes to Aardvark Casting for helping us with actors and extras and last but not least, the following General Post members who were responsible for the all the post-production of the films:
• Marcus Carter, Gareth James, Desmond Allan, Lolly Gumbi, Kingsley Brown, Phillip Mohloakoane Richard Mayes, Masibonge Mtshali and lastly Andrew Dixon who edited the Behind the Scenes on top of jumping in to help us on a few occasions where we needed last minute help.

You can view photo’s and the five final video’s on our facebook page www.facebook.com/generalpost