The best SAFTA-winning local titles to stream now

Halala! Showmax remains the best place to stream South African content, according to the 2022 SAFTAs.

Content on Showmax won 45 awards, more than half of the content prizes given out over the weekend, and the most by far of any streaming service.

Showmax Originals alone won 17 SAFTAs, the most of any channel or streamer.

Tali’s Baby Diary and Glasshouse were the two biggest winners at the SAFTAs overall, with five awards each, tied in first place with Mzansi Magic’s telenovela Diep City.

Here’s the best content in South Africa to stream now, across each of the key categories, all available to binge on Showmax:

Tali’s Baby Diary – South Africa’s best comedy

With five awards, including Best TV Comedy, the Showmax Original Tali’s Baby Diary is jointly the biggest winner at this year’s SAFTAs.

Produced by Sketchbook Studios, Tali’s Baby Diary is the sequel to the first ever Showmax Original, Tali’s Wedding Diary, which set a (then) record for the most first-day views on Showmax and was similarly the most awarded comedy at the 2019 SAFTAs, taking home five prizes, including Best Comedy.

In Tali’s Baby Diary, an unexpected pregnancy forces Tali into a desperate pivot from Insta-influencer to wholesome momfluencer.

As Tali, Julia Anastasopoulos (aka SuzelleDIY) won Best Actress, while Kate Normington won Supporting Actress as her mother, Michelle. The series also won for Directing (Ari Kruger and Daniel Zimbler) and Editing (Richard Starkey and Gordon Midgley).

Showmax is currently in production on Tali’s Joburg Diary, premiering in November 2022.

Need more laughs?

• kykNET’s airport mockumentary G.I.L won three awards: Best Supporting Actor (Frank Opperman), Art Direction (Beatrix van Zyl), and Wardrobe (Cassandra Rowland)
• The Showmax Original romcom Troukoors (Wedding Fever) won Best Cinematography (Fahema Hendricks)

Glasshouse – the most awarded feature film at this year’s SAFTAs

The Showmax film Glasshouse won five SAFTAs, making it the most awarded feature film this year – and the joint biggest winner overall too.

Directed and co-written by Kelsey Egan, Glasshouse is set after an airborne dementia known as The Shred has left humanity roaming like lost and dangerous animals, unable to remember who they are. Confined to their airtight glasshouse, a family does what they must to survive – until the sisters are seduced by a stranger who upsets the family’s rituals, unearthing a past they have tried to bury.

Produced by Local Motion Pictures, in association with Crave Pictures, Glasshouse won Cinematography (Justus de Jager), Production Design (Kerry Von Lillienfeld), Editing (Rowan Jackson), Costume Design (Catherine McIntosh) and Makeup and Hairstyling (Annie Butler).

Before coming to Showmax, Glasshouse had its world premiere at North America’s top genre film festival, Fantasia, in Montreal, Canada in August 2021 – and also screened at Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the USA, earning multiple five-star reviews and an 84% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Film Threat’s Lorry Kitka singled out Glasshouse as her “favourite film of the year so far”; Exclaim proclaimed, “Kelsey Egan is a filmmaker to keep an eye on”; and Comicon.com called the film “a folk horror movie that could become a modern classic.”

Want more award-winning local films?

• Jafta Mamabolo won both Best Actor and Scriptwriting for Freedom, an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic novel Crime and Punishment, which Jafta co-directed with Ralph Ziman. Award-winners like Mary Twala (RIP), Kenneth Nkosi, Mandla Gaduka and Ferry Jele co-star.
• Amy Jephta won the Best Director SAFTA for South Africa’s Oscar entry, the multi-award-winning Barakat, about a Muslim widow trying to bring together her fractured family over Eid-al-Fitr to break the news about her new romance.
• Mandla N’s Boxing Day, about two siblings trying to find the money to bury their gogo, won Best Made For TV Movie
• Ryan Kruger’s cult alien-abduction-in-Cape-Town sci-fi Fried Barry won two SAFTAs: Original Music (Ebenhaezer Smal [Haezer]) and Sound Design (Ebenhaezer Smal [Haezer], Keagan Higgins, Rob Brinkworth and Gustav Stutterheim)

4 Mure – South Africa’s best drama series

kykNET’s 4 Mure won three SAFTAs: Best TV Drama; Makeup & Hairstyling (Minke Swart); and Wardrobe (Mariechen Vosloo).

Each 25m episode in the five-part anthology is set in the same hotel room, with the same housekeeper (Lida Botha), but with different stories, characters and genres.

The all-star cast includes SAFTA winners Tinarie van Wyk-Loots, Tarryn Wyngaard, and Deon Lotz; Silwerskerm winners Beer Adriaanse and Carel Nel; 2022 SAFTA Best Actress: Comedy nominee Ilse-lee van Niekerk (Troukoors); and Lida’s husband, Johan Botha.

Produced by Marche Media (Kanarie), 4 Mure is directed by Jaco Bouwer (SXSW winner Gaia, upcoming Showmax Original Spinners).

In their four-star review, Channel24 said 4 Mure “can effortlessly compete on an international level when it comes to the creativity and quality… A beautifully crafted limited series… This is edgy Afrikaans with a foreign, subtitled, indie look and feel to it. It’s got an air of Wes Anderson… and maybe even a hint of Ryan Murphy… The storylines bubble with that Black Mirror type of secrecy that feels fresh, clever, and unexpected.”

Need more local drama?

• M-Net’s crime drama Reyka won four SAFTAs: Best Actress (Kim Engelbrecht), Directing (Catharine Cooke and Zee Ntuli), Scriptwriting (Rohan Dickson), and Cinematography (Tom Marais)
• Mzansi Magic’s izinkabi drama eHostela won two SAFTAs: Best Actor (Thobani Nzuza as Mdeni) and Sound (Joel “Juelz” Mahlatjie)
• Natasha Loring won her first SAFTA, for Best Supporting Actress, as Sienna in the Showmax Original psychological thriller DAM, which also earned Sue Steele the Best Art Direction SAFTA.
• kykNET’s family drama Nêrens, Noord-Kaap won Best Editing (Regardt Botha, Markus Van Schalkwyk and Eva Du Preez)
• Mzansi Magic’s church drama Umkhokha won Best Original Music/Score (Zithulele Khwela).

The Wife – the Zulu brothers are officially the best!

Mzansi Magic’s DiepCity was the big telenovela winner, winning five awards, including Best Telenovela and Most Popular TV Soap or Telenovela.

The first Showmax Original telenovela, The Wife, didn’t go home empty handed though, with the SAFTA jury agreeing with the 5am Club that the Zulu brothers are the best, giving Best Actor to Bonko Khoza as Mqhele and Supporting Actor to Abdul Khoza as Nqoba. This is Bonko’s first SAFTA win and Abdul’s second.

Produced by Stained Glass, the record-breaking, Twitter topping first season of The Wife followed Hlomu, a journalist who fell in love with taxi driver Mqhele, not realising that when you marry a man, you marry his secrets.

Showmax is currently in production on Season 3 of The Wife, premiering in November 2022.

Need more soaps and telenovelas?

• kykNET’s Suidooster was named Best Soap Opera for the first time at the 2022 SAFTAs. The soapie follows three families – The Octobers, the Samsodiens and the du Plooys – as they work, live and love side by side at Suidooster, a small shopping and business centre in Ruiterbosch in Cape Town.
• 1Magic’s The River, which airs on Showmax daily, won Best Original Music/Score for Brendan Jury
• M-Net’s Legacy won Best Scriptwriting for Gwydion Beynon and Phathutshedzo Makwarela
• kykNET’s Binnelanders won Best Directing: TV Soap for Danie Joubert
• kykNET’s Arendsvlei won Best Supporting Actress for Shaleen Surtie Richards, who passed away in June 2021

Devilsdorp – the best made for TV documentary in SA

The Showmax Original true crime series Devilsdorp was named Best Made For TV Documentary at the SAFTAs.

In 2016, a spate of brutal Appointment Murders gripped the town of Krugersdorp, leaving sales people and consultants terrified to book meetings in case they were the serial killer’s next victims. The investigation led detectives to a series of unsolved cold cases, the so-called Satanic Murders, and to links between 11 Krugersdorp killings between 2012 and 2016. They discovered these were the work of the Electus per Deus (Chosen by God) cult.

Alongside extraordinary footage of exorcisms, church meetings, and trial testimonies and judgments, Devilsdorp features first-hand accounts from the likes of Captain Ben Booysen, the senior investigating officer; deputy director of Public Prosecutions Gerrit Roberts; Discovery claims specialist Shane Chatzkelowitz; and journalist Marizka Coetzer. The family of the victims also share their stories, as do church members who knew the perpetrators. Netwerk24 journalist Jana Marx, author of The Krugersdorp Cult Killings: Inside Cecilia Steyn’s Reign of Terror, narrates the series.

“Our thoughts are forever with those families who lost their loved ones,” director David Enright said on Facebook after the win. “Your courage remains inspirational.”

Need more true crime?

• VIA’s Die Staat Teen was named Best Factual Programme at the SAFTAs. In this true crime series, state prosecutors open their confidential files to tell the story of the most challenging or memorable court cases of their legal careers, including the murders of Uyinene Mrwetyana and Gill Packham.

DJ Zinhle: The Unexpected – the best soapie reality TV in SA

DJ Zinhle: The Unexpected won Best Structured Soapie Reality Show at the SAFTAs.

The 13-part, 30-minute BET Africa reality show follows the Umlilo-hitmaker through her pregnancy with her second child, Asante, whose father is musician Bongani Mohosana, popularly known as Murdah Bongz. DJ Zinhle also has a daughter with rapper AKA.

Look out for appearances from close friends like Pearl Thusi and Nomuzi ‘Moozlie’ Mabena.

#WeAreDyingHere – the best short film in South Africa

Named Best Short Film at the 2022 SAFTAs, #WeAreDyingHere chronicles the journey of three soldiers forced to survive in a war they did not choose. As the war against women rages around them, they attempt to find solace to process their pain under the constant threat of their enemy lurking in the shadows. #WeAreDyingHere takes on the violent culture of harassment, abuse, rape and femicide, taking a necessary pause to gain insight into the experience of living as a woman.

Executive produced by Siya and Rachel Kolisi, the short film is an adaptation of the original stage production by award-winning poet, performer and theatre director Siphokazi Jonas, who stars alongside her co-writers, Fleur du Cap-nominated theatre performer and musician Babalwa Makwetu and spoken word artist Hope Netshivhambe. It’s directed by Black Reel Award nominee and Mandela Washington Fellow Shane Vermooten (Freedom Road, Kusasa, Bypass), and produced by Bianca Schmitz (Kusasa, Bypass) and Siphokazi Jonas.

Die Broer Toer – the best lifestyle show in South Africa

kykNET’s Die Broer Toer was named Best Lifestyle Show at the 2022 SAFTAs.

Three brothers, three bikes, no licences, one big adventure – all the ingredients for Die Broer Toer.
Actor Bennie Fourie (G.I.L., Hotel) is famous for being funny, but he and his brothers, Reynold and Wilbrie, are also well-known for their legendary road trips. From road tripping in a souped-up Nissan Sani at university to hiking trails with the family – if there’s a road, they’ll take it.

Even as the demands of adulthood pull Bennie, Reynold and Wilbrie in opposite directions, they always manage to find time for one more trip – or in this case, a season’s worth of them, from the Tankwa Karoo to Riemvasmaak, Vioolsdrif to the Koue Bokkeveld.