Writers across South Africa gathered in an intimate setting for the eighth Writers Guild of SA Muse Awards (WGSA) held in Noordhoek.
In recognition of outstanding achievement in writing, the cream of the crop attended the ceremony at the Cape Point Vineyards on Saturday 7 October.
Winners included Fish Hoek local Uga Carlini, a multi-award-winning filmmaker, who won in the category of Best Documentary Produced Featured Screenplay.
Her film Beyond the Light Barrier debuted on Friday 6 October on Amazon Prime.
Commenting on her win, Carlini tells People’s Post that she loves telling stories.
“The history of humankind is held in the stories that we tell, and I love that.
“Where the idea for my first film started, the first footage I ever shot as a filmmaker was at the Fish Hoek Sports Field where we replicated that for the Drakensberg, for the part of young Elizabeth Clara, which is the film I won for today, Beyond the Light barrier, which is now on Amazon Prime.”
She added that writers were the “most neglected” in the industry.
“I feel that the writers are one of the most neglected in this wonderful industry of ours that I am very passionate about.”
The special Paul Ian Johnson Foundation Award for Best Emerging Writer went to Neliswa Chigudu for her screenplay Isichitho.
Chigudu, who came from Johannesburg to attend the awards, said winning was an affirmation that leaving her medical career for writing was the right choice.
“You have no idea what this means to me; it is an affirmation for me because I left my field of medical technology in 2015 for this.”
After publishing four books, the screenplay she won was the first script Chigudu submitted.
“This was my first script to be submitted and the inspiration came from different places, from the stories that were happening around me and some were my own challenges I faced.”
Meanwhile, Sean Drummond won in the category Best Television Produced Screenplay for episode 101 in the Netflix thriller Unseen.
Drummond is one of five writers who wrote Unseen, a South African crime thriller currently available on Netflix.
“I wrote this particular episode but there is a team of five writers on the show as a whole and so I think it is a testament to all who are in this room, the storyline, the character work and we are lucky that the show is well received by audiences too.”
He added that it was an honour to win.
“This is really nice to be recognised from the writing point of view.
“If you haven’t seen it, it’s on Netflix and is a six-episode season that is very binge worthy.”
