2020 Safta winners available to binge on Showmax

It is time to binge your favourite television shows as nearly 66% of the 2020 South African Film and Television Awards (Safta) winners in the television categories are available to binge now on Showmax, with more to come soon.

What to watch on Showmax:

This includes all the telenovela winners, 12 of the drama winners out of 13, and the best reality show (Living The Dream With Somizi), natural history (Stroop), lifestyle (Elders: Japan) and variety shows (Mooi), as well as the best documentary (Buddha in Africa) and short film winners (The Letter Reader).

With 10 awards, The River was the most-awarded series overall at the Saftas – for the second year in a row. This follows its International Emmy nomination last year.

Set against a backdrop of the dirty business of diamond mining, 1Magic’s thrill-a-minute telenovela The River sees two different but interdependent worlds collide in spectacular fashion. One side of the river is home to exquisite mansions populated by society’s upper crust, like the Dlamini’s, who will go to any lengths to maintain their wealth; the other by those, like the Dikana family, who have little to show for their hard work. 

Sindi Dlathu won the Best Actress Safta as mining magnate Lindiwe Dlamini-Dikana, following on from DStv Mzansi Viewers Choice Awards Favourite Actress in March 2020. The River also won Best Telenovela, Best Supporting Actress (Mary-Anne Barlow) as well craft awards for Directing, Script, Editing, Sound, Cinematography, Wardrobe, and Hair and Makeup.

New episodes of The River start again from Monday, 25 May 2020.

With seven awards, The Republic was the most-awarded drama series and the second-most awarded series overall. Set in an alternative present-day South Africa, where presidents are jailed for corruption, The Republic follows the country’s first female president, Lufuno Zandile Mulaudzi (Africa Movie Academy Award winner Florence Masebe in a Safta-winning performance), who’s kidnapped by the Dogs of Soshanguve while trying to apologise to the township residents for her government’s failings. Four-time SAFTA winner – and 2020 DStv Mzansi Viewers Choice Awards Favourite Actor winner – Warren Masemola (Tjovitjo, Vaya) was nominated again as Thabang Manaka, a fallen hero trying to make amends for his past mistakes, Seputla Sebogodi won Best Supporting Actor as a leader of the Dogs of Soshanguve, while Hlomla Dandala (The River) was also nominated as the deputy president. 

In addition, The Republic took home Best Drama as well as craft awards for Directing, Scriptwriting, Cinematography, Sound, and Music.  

Other Safta winners you can stream now on Showmax include:

• Suidooster – Best Actress: TV Soap (Denise Newman)
• Arendsvlei – Best Actor: TV Soap (Roberto Kyle), and a craft award for Art Direction
• The Queen – Best Supporting Actor: TV Soap (Loyiso MacDonald) – new episodes start again on Monday, 25 May 2020
• eHostela – Best Actor: Drama (Wiseman Mncube)
• iThemba – Best Supporting Actress: Drama (Brenda Ngxoli)
• Getroud Met Rugby – Best Scriptwriting: TV Soap
• Isibaya – Best Music: Telenovela
• Ifalakhe – Best Wardrobe: Drama and Best Makeup and Hair: Drama
• Die Spreeus – Best Editing: Drama
• The Fun’s Not Over – The James Phillips Story – Best Editing: Documentary

MORE FROM NOSIPHA DUMISA, DARYNE JOSHUA and GAMBIT FILMS:

Before creating Blood & Water, Nosipha Dumisa made her name directing Nommer 37, a homage to the Hitchcock classic Rear Window. 

Randal Hendricks (Irshaad Ally from Suidooster) is a recent paraplegic, trapped in his apartment. After being given binoculars by his devoted girlfriend, Pam (Monique Rockman from Die Spreeus), he witnesses a murder committed by a powerful criminal, Lawyer (David Manuel from Noem My Skollie). In debt to a sadistic loan shark (Danny Ross from Suidooster), Randal initiates a treacherous blackmail scheme…

Nommer 37 was the only African movie in competition at SXSW in 2018 and went on to win Best Director at Fantasia and Best Editor at the Saftas, among other accolades.

A New York Times’ Critics Pick, Nommer 37 was hailed as “a gripping, well-constructed thriller” by The Los Angeles Times, as “richly satisfying… a singularly crafty and strikingly well-crafted thriller that signals the arrival of a promising filmmaking talent” by Variety, and as “exhilarating” and “heart-stopping” by Shadow & Act.

Other classics not to miss on Showmax include the movies Ellen and Noem My Skollie, directed by Dumisa’s fellow Blood & Water director Daryne Joshua, and the hit kykNET soap opera Suidooster, created by Blood & Water‘s production company Gambit Films, which won Best Actress in a TV Soap for Denise Newman at last month’s Saftas.

To see everything on Showmax, click here. Please note this release schedule is subject to change.