ZANEWS won three Golden Horns out of six nominations at the South African Film and Television Awards held earlier this month at Gallagher Estate in Johannesburg. No small achievement for a show that some TV executives thought South Africans were “not ready” for.
The actors, writers, editors, puppeteers, puppet-makers and producers behind ZANEWS won in the following categories:
– Best Ensemble in a TV Comedy: Both Worlds (the production company behind ZANEWS)
– Best Editor of a TV Comedy: Aaron Naidoo, Rod Macleod, Hugh Upsher (and Volo Ganca)
– Best Art Direction of a TV Comedy: Riccardo Pugliese (sets), Lindsay van Blerk and the ZANEWS workshop team (puppet design)
“Despite some of our puppets waking up with nasty hangovers and showing up unacceptably late for work, we are delighted,” says Thierry Cassuto, ZANEWS’ Executive Producer and Creator. “I want to give huge thanks and congratulations to my partner in crime Zapiro, our writers Marianne Thamm, Anne Hirsch, Ben Trovato, Andrew Donaldson, Tom Eaton, Chumile Goqwana; voice actors Nikki Jackman, Aggrey Lonake, Nik Rabinowitz, Adam Behr, Louw Venter; puppeteers (too many to mention), puppet-makers, editors, production team and our bold funders, past and present. Thanks to our brave friends at TopTV, we hope they keep it up! And of course, a big thank you to all those politicians who unabashedly write our scripts.”
He added: “We’re proud to bring TopTV its first SAFTAs and confident that ZANEWS will continue with a 6th Season. Maybe Juju has some money stashed away to keep us going. Aluta Continua!”
ZANEWS was on TopTV for two seasons but not showing currently as they’re on hiatus. It is also available daily via the web and mobile at www.zanews.co.za, on the South African iTunes store, on DVDs and as comic in The Big Issue magazine.
