By Seleoe Nonyane
The highly anticipated award giving ceremony called Tycoonseries Film Festival Awards will finally see the light of day after three years of intense preparations.
The inaugural Tycoonseries Film Festival Awards will take place on February 11 2023 at the Lehakoe Recreational Centre.
The Tycoonseries Film Festival Awards is an event which recognises and acknowledges Sesotho films and filmmakers.
This was revealed by Carlos Khutlisi who is the founder of Tycoonseries, the film company which is the driving force behind the awards.
Khutlisi told this publication that the road to the awards ceremony began three years ago. He described it as ‘three years of hard work and research’.
He said the journey to this project was also filled with a lot of doubt, primarily due to the high cost of holding an event of this nature.
“It had to be this year because from the conception of the idea, we agreed to work on it for three years while figuring out possibilities and major factors that could prove to be an impediment.
“Both our language, Sesotho, and culture are threatened by extinction hence the film awards. “Therefore, the main objective is to preserve the Sesotho language in both local and international media by ensuring a continuous production of Sesotho content”, he stated.
He said they received a total of 52 entries, although about 20 did not make it beyond the first evaluation process which focused on picture quality and sound.
He added that the number of entries was satisfactory, considering that they had anticipated about 70 to 85 entries. The requirement was for film entries to contain 70 percent of the Sesotho language.
“There are eight categories namely, the jury award, best short film, best comedy award, best actor ward, best Sesotho film, best student award, best actress and the people choice award.
“The judging criteria is in line with international film fests standards which put a premium on the standard of the film.
“This way, whoever wins our festival award will also be fit to compete at any international film fest and will not fall too far from what he got in his or her country,” Khutlisi emphasised.
He said he hopes the event will attract the attention of the government and, if that is accomplished, he then it will provide an importance to use in the process of rebranding Lesotho.
“We are also hoping to inspire production of more Sesotho films. We also dream of unity and cooperation among local producers.
“Film festivals also serve as a marketing and advertising platform. It is worth noting, though, that social media also plays a vital role when it comes to putting our work out there for people to see. With the aid of social media, the world is at our finger tips. The marketing is made simple. The challenge lies in the distribution part,” he said.
In conclusion, Khutlisi noted that the film industry in Lesotho lacks purpose, as a lot of films are produced but never bought even national television, something that requires to be addressed as a matter of urgency. Not only that, opening cinemas nation-wide would come in handy for the growth of the country’s film industry, he insisted.
