Category Archives: Art

DSTV Content Creator Awards 2023 – Winners Announcement

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Hundreds of guests. Almost 40,000 public votes. More than 90 nominees. 19 winners. One unforgettable night. 

The Galleria in Sandton was alight with colours of purple and pink this past Saturday, 9 September, as the DStv Content Creator Awards, in Association with Samsung Galaxy, took centre stage. It wasn’t just another awards night but the biggest night in South African content creation.

You felt the buzz on social media leading up to the awards, and it came alive as nominees, guests, and fans thronged the Purple Carpet, with the awards’ TikTok Live giving viewers online access to the glitz and glam. Some of the personalities spotted on the carpet included Lasizwe, K Naomi, Julia Anastasopoulos, Pona Halo, Nomuzi ‘Moozlie’ Mabena, Kim Jayde, Candice Modiselle, Matt Flax, Farieda Metsileng, Carol Ofori, Karabo Poppy, Kefilwe Mabote and Lemii LoCo.

Donovan Goliath, the award-winning comedian and content creator, hosted the awards and navigated the night with energy and humour. Live music was curated and performed by SA legends Black Motion.

One of the country’s most powerful storytellers, authors, playwrights and performers, Gcina Mhlophe, officially opened the awards by reading a beautiful poem and blessing the awards and all the attendees, nominees and winners.

The show then kicked off with Bontle Modiselle Dance Studio lighting up the stage, accompanied by the Dance Award category nominees, 250Machine, Adriaan Hughes, Justin De Nobrega, Kelly KiKx and Mr NT.

A special moment was when the awards’ founder, Manuela Dias de Deus, expressed her vision for the awards. “Our idea has always been to put creators on the radar and open doors for emerging and established talent. The youth’s potential to monetise their content and create job opportunities is immense,” said Manuela. “More so, our vision is to make the awards the biggest event of its kind on the continent. We want to continue to grow and be on everyone’s feeds.”

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Apple TV App Launches Women In Power Campaign That Celebrates South African Creatives

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For the duration of August, Apple TV app, will be spotlighting South African storytellers across TV and film in their Women In Power campaign. The work of Micaela Kleinsmith (My Kind of Country), Jodi Balfour (For All Mankind) and Lou Llobell (Foundation) harnesses their innate strength, stirs us to action and inspires us to imagine. 

Micaela Kleinsmith showed a penchant for songwriting from the tender age of 14, and after a successful stint on SA Idols in 2016, went on to perform across almost every stage in and around Cape Town in order to hone her live skills. Her onstage vigour served her well as a contestant on the first season of Apple TV+’s My Kind of Country, as Micaela was first championed by masked country South African singer Orville Peck, before going on to be crowned the winner.

Jodi Balfour graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre & Performance at the University of Cape Town, before relocating to Canada and finally settling in Los Angeles, California. As Ellen Wilson in Apple TV+’s drama, For All Mankind, Jodi plays a budding engineer, who becomes one of NASA’s first female astronauts before fiercely pursuing a political career in season 3 that sees her elected as the nation’s 41st president in 1992.

London-based actress, Lou Llobell, grew up in South Africa after her Zimbabwean mother and Spanish father relocated to Pietermaritzburg when she was eight years old. In Apple TV+’s sci-fi series Foundation she portrays Gaal Dornick, a brilliant mathematical prodigy from the repressed water planet of Synnax. Recruited by Hari Seldon, Gaal becomes an integral part of his plan to preserve civilization.

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“The Greatest Love Of All” – Belinda Davids Returns to the Jo’burg Theatre

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“Belinda is Back” by popular demand! 

South African singing sensation Belinda Davids returns to the Jo’burg Theatre with “The Greatest Love of All” * at the iconic Mandela Theatre from 24 August to 10 September 2023.

Last year’s sold-out run exceeded all expectations, resulting in an unprecedented demand for tickets which led to the 2023 return season. To avoid disappointment, fans are encouraged to book sooner rather than later. Tickets are on sale at Webtickets.co.za

Belinda Davids, a RiSA chart-topping artist who has performed alongside the likes of Keri Hilson, Keyshia Cole and Monica and featured on Fox TV’s ‘Showtime at the Apollo’, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and BBC1 TV’s ‘Even Better Than the Real Thing’ will be performing a very special return season including additional songs from the Whitney Houston repertoire.  The state-of-the-art sound, lighting, vision and theatrical effects together with mesmerising vocals by Belinda Davids, brings the late Whitney Houston’s musical legacy to life. 

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“Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire” on Disney+

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Featuring stories from creators hailing from Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe, “Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire” promises to take viewers on an unforgettable ride into Africa’s future, presenting visions of the continent as never before seen. 

The action-packed animated anthology draws on the continent’s rich and diverse histories and cultures to present 10 sci-fi and fantasy stories featuring bold and brave new worlds of advanced technology, aliens, spirits, and monsters. 

The 10 films are: “Stardust” (Ahmed Teilab, Egypt), “Mkhuzi: The Spirit Racer” (Simangaliso “Panda” Sibaya and Malcolm Wopé, South Africa), “Hatima” (Terence Maluleke and Isaac Mogajane, South Africa), “Enkai” (Ng’endo Mukii, Kenya), “Moremi” (Shofela Coker, Nigeria), “Surf Sangoma” (Nthato Mokgata and Catherine Green, South Africa), “Mukudzei” (Pious Nyenyewa and Tafadzwa Hove, Zimbabwe), “First Totem Problems” (Tshepo Moche, South Africa), “Herderboy” (Raymond Malinga, Uganda) and “You Give Me Heart” (Lesego Vorster, South Africa).

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Sandton City spearheads the integration of AI in “Future Icons” campaign

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True to its promise to stay at the forefront of the African retail landscape, Sandton City has taken another leap forward. In 2022, the centre launched its “City of Icons” campaign, profiling iconic fashion staples such as the little black dress, denim, trench coat, hoodie and suit, with shoes, sunglasses, handbags, and lipstick, all must-haves for any fashion forward shopper. Now, the esteemed shopping centre has taken the campaign to another level, inviting shoppers to imagine what the city of icons will look like, in the future, featuring these iconic items, tech-nified.

Driven by a futuristic vision, tech savvy shoppers will be delighted to see artificial intelligence (AI) generated iterations of these items, and others, crafted in the same approach, that propel the imagination on a futuristic journey. Generated using a Midjourney Bot on Discord, a generative artificial intelligence program, the campaign aims to help visitors to the centre envisage incorporating these essential items into their future fashion routines and to imagine future possibilities, where technology and icons integrate.

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