South Africa’s breakout film STROOP - journey into the rhino horn war has won the prestigious Genesis Award in the 'Outstanding Brigitte Bardot International Documentary Feature Film' category in the United States. The Genesis Awards recognize excellent work in media with a special focus on outstanding reporting of animal protection issues.
The winners, in only 15 categories, included Stephen Spielberg’s Jurassic World, for tackling wildlife trafficking, Natalie Portman’s vegan film Eating Animals, Ellen DeGeneres, for her talkshow that continually highlights gorilla protection issues, as well as iconic American institutions like the New York Times, 60 Minutes and Sesame Street.
Says filmmaker and STROOP presenter, Bonné de Bod: "We are so thrilled! It’s wonderful that this independent, crowd-funded film on the heroes trying to tackle our rhino poaching crisis is being honoured in such a huge way, and just shows me once again, that the world views this as vitally important. This massive recognition of STROOP just keeps shining a global light on South Africa’s effort to save our rhinos and that it can’t be ignored.”
This US recognition follows the film’s first South African recognition - the 'Audience Award for Best South African Film' at the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival which was held in Cape Town recently. This award is the top nod at Africa’s most prestigious documentary film festival.
Since its world premiere at the San Francisco Green Film Festival in September last year, STROOP has been officially selected for 28 film festivals and has won 20 awards. The film has been picked up by the London-based Journeyman Pictures for international distribution and Scott and de Bod are in talks with local broadcasters and hope to announce soon a South African television transmission date.
Watch Bonné de Bod accept the award right here.
Source : Jag Communications
