Awards Wrap: MAA’s Rising Star finalists revealed, Old Mutual Amazing Voices judges announced, Mobile Film Festival Africa winners

The Media Online’s weekly column delivering news of award wins, entries, competitions, dates to note and winners in the media industry.

The MAAs announce Rising Star finalists for 2020/21

The Marketing Achievement Awards (MAAs) has announced the finalists for an award that honours South Africa’s Rising Stars, the best and the brightest under the age of 35 who have consistently demonstrated excellent performance and who have the potential to become outstanding leaders in their profession.

“Unilever offers a stimulating and supportive environment for new, young marketers to cut their teeth on the ins and outs of brand management and learn how to strategically ensure businesses provide solutions to consumers across various communities. We feel that sponsoring this Award is a natural fit with our own stance towards acknowledging exceptional young marketers,” said Elizabeth Mokwena, HomeCare marketing director, Unilever South Africa,

In order to select the Rising Star for 2021, a stringent judging process was implemented and overseen by a judging panel chaired by Dr Doug Mattheus, CEO of Doug M Consultancy. This diverse panel of highly experienced marketing professionals and industry experts, included Audrey Naidoo (Head of Digital Marketing, ABSA Group), Napsta Masinga (Founder & Creative Director, Napsta Collective), Nontokozo Madonsela (Group Chief Marketing Officer, Momentum Metropolitan Holdings), Professor Madéle Tait (Director: School of Management Sciences, Nelson Mandela University), and Elizabeth Mokwena.

This Year’s Rising Star of the Year Finalists

• Bianca de Beer, senior marketing manager at Telesure Investment Holdings
• Itumeleng Matlare, brand manager at Tiger Brands
• Lisa Mains-Sheard, digital marketing manager at Nedbank
• Arye Kellman, co-founder and chief creative officer at TILT
• Serisha Pillay, senior marketing manager at Discovery Limited 
• Robyn Hobson, head of sales and marketing at Mobile Guardian

The MAA Virtual Awards Ceremony takes place at 6pm on 31 March 2021.

Old Mutual Amazing Voices judges in the hot seat for season 2

The Pan–African singing competition reality show, Old Mutual Amazing Voices, produced by Brightfire Pictures, returns for its second installment.

Switching up the tempo in this season will be five of Africa’s musical maestros who will take on the task of judging groups from Ghana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa and the newly added region, Nigeria as the brand new season premieres on Sunday, 11 April 2021 simulcasting on Mzansi Magic and Mzansi Wethu (17:00) as well as airing on Zambezi Magic (Zimbabwe – 17:00), Africa Magic at (Ghana – 15:00), Maisha Magic East at (Kenya -18:00), Africa Magic at (16:00 – Nigeria).

Unsigned groups made up of members of four to eight members will have an opportunity to sing and impress the elite panel of judges made up of Ammara Brown, Trigmatic, Evelle, Filah and Vusi Nova.

This year’s season of Old Mutual Amazing Voices will disrupt the world of competitive singing reality shows in Africa and revolutionalise the format of showcasing group performers.

“It is with great pride that we are once again the proud partners of this exceptional show, which clearly demonstrates the depth of our Pan-African talent and passion to be come one’s exceptional best. With this year’s array of esteemed judges, we are clear on the impact of learning from the greats and how wisdom, experience and lessons must be shared in order to empower, enable and inspire others. This year promises to be even better than Season 1 and we can wait to watch as the show unfolds leading up to the finale on the 5^th July 2021,” said Thobile Tshabalala, head of brand at Old Mutual Limited.

The Mobile Film Festival Africa unveils its Awards in Tunis

This prize list is the result of a call for films in 2020 with exceptional results through 497 films from 38 countries, among which was established the official selection of 51 films from 23 countries of the continent.

For this first pan-African edition, the enthusiasm was present from the call for films and continued throughout the online festival phase with media coverage internationally and across the continent. The objective of the festival is to discover and support talented directors from the continent.

The broadcasting of the films of the official selection will continue thanks to the numerous partnerships currently signed with SVOD platforms of the continent, in particular Star Times which chose to broadcast all 51 films in Africa and in the world on its OTT offer.

For this first pan-African edition, the Mobile Film Festival has set up production grants for a total amount of 18,500 €. During the awards ceremony on Thursday, March 25 at the Institut Français de Tunis, the winners of this first edition of the Mobile Film Festival were revealed: