While 3D spectacular Avatar has everyone talking at the moment, last year District 9 was the movie on everyone’s lips and twitter streams – seems Sci-fi is the opium of the movie-going masses, offering an escape from the world’s economic woes and other bleak realities of daily life.
These two block-busters are both among the 10 nominees for the Producers Guild of America Awards – considered a strong indicator of what we can expect to see touted when the next Oscar ceremony rolls around.
While Avatar, released in December 09 is already the fourth highest grossing film in history, District 9 was a surprise hit at the box office. The movie, which spawned a hundred ‘prawn’ jokes and references and made a star of local actor Sharlto Copley (Wikus van der Merwe), was directed by South African Neill Blomkamp and filmed in Johannesburg.
The recognition that the South African city and the local stars and SA director will gain through the PGA Awards (and hopefully the Oscars in 2010) will offer excellent exposure to our country as a great location and our home-grown talent as being truly gifted.
Also on the list is
Invictus, based on the 1995 Rugby World Cup and filmed in various parts of South Africa. While the main stars were Hollywood biggies Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, many of the other actors were South African.
The full list of PGA nominees is as follows:
- Avatar
- District 9
- Star Trek (yet another Sci-fi movie)
- The Hurt Locker
- Inglorious Basterds
- Invictus
- Up
- Up in the Air
- An Education
- Precious
