Tuesday 15 October 2013

'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom' to Get Royal Audience

'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom' to Get Royal Audience - The Hollywood Reporter

Mandela Long Walk To Freedom

The South African/British co-production is selected to be this year's Royal Film Performance, a charity gala that raises money for the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund.

LONDON -- Justin Chadwick's Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, starring Idris Elba and NaomieHarris, will play to a royal audience after being picked for this year's Royal Film Performance.
The Royal and European Premiere gala will take place Dec. 5 at Odeon Leicester Square with members of the royal family, cast and filmmakers in attendance.
The Royal Film Performance is the principal fundraising event of the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund (CTBF), the trade charity for the U.K. film and television industries.
The CTBF provides care and financial support to industry employees and their families who suffer from hardship due to bereavement, illness, redundancy or other misfortunes.
CTBF president Barry Jenkins said: "We are thrilled to be able to host the Royal Premiere of this momentous South African/British co-production. Our thanks to [U.K. distributor] Pathe for sharing this opportunity with us."
The movie spans Mandela's extraordinary life, from his childhood in a rural village to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa and is billed as the largest South African/British co-production ever mounted.
Made with the full support and endorsement of Mandela, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, it was produced by South Africa's Anant Singh and former BBC Films chief David M. Thompson for Origin Pictures in the face of fierce competition from the majors.
Singh spent 16 years developing the film before it began shooting in May 2012. Thousands of South Africans participated in the making of the film, both behind and in front of the camera, where the cream of South Africa's acting talent line up alongside Elba and Harris.
William Nicholson (Les Miserables) wrote the screenplay for the movie, which was exec produced for Pathe by Cameron McCracken and Francois Ivernel.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom will be rolled out in cinemas across the U.K. and Ireland on Jan. 3, 2014.

Wednesday 9 October 2013

Idris Elba's Nelson Mandela movie is phenomenal

FIONA PHILLIPS COLUMNIdris Elba's Nelson Mandela movie is phenomenal


Elba and Harris are phenomenal as Nelson and Winnie, with Idris having to endure four hours of make-up before playing the older Mandela


Iconic: Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

Iconic: Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedo
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At last year’s Pride of Britain awards, actor Idris Elba caused a series of spontaneous swoons around the room.
So it was a great privilege to meet him and his beautiful co-star Naomie Harris at a special screening of the forthcoming movie Mandela.
Elba and Harris are phenomenal as Nelson and Winnie, with Idris having to endure four hours of make-up before playing the older Mandela.
Lawyer Iqbal Meer, who represented the iconic South African leader while in prison, told me how, when he first went to Robben Island, “I saw Nelson in prison shorts and sandals.
"He was my hero. And I cried to see him like that”.
Mr Meer joked he was at the screening to make sure there wasn’t anything untoward in the film.
“You’ll see me twitching if there is,” he said. He didn’t.
The movie’s released early next year.


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Mandela film wins international award

Mandela film gets international award




A film about the life of former president Nelson Mandela received an award at the Aspen Filmfest, its producers said on Thursday.

The film, titled "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom", which premiered at the Toronto film festival last month, received the Audience Favourite Feature Award in the United States on Wednesday night.

It was up against The Fight Estate, August, Osage Country, Nebraska, and One Chance. Some of those movies included actresses Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep.

In the Mandela production, Idris Elba played Mandela while Naomi Harris played Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

South African actress Terry Pheto co-starred in the film.

The Aspen Filmfest, which is an affiliate of Aspen Film, one of Colorado's most active film arts organisations, is an internationally recognised film festival.

"Even though the Aspen Filmfest is a small festival, it is very prestigious. It has the best of the line-up for Oscar contenders for the year-end in the run up to the 2014 Academy Awards," Anant Singh, the film producer, said in a statement.

"We are delighted that [this movie] came out tops, especially in contention with these quality films."

-Sapa