The first Royalty Soapie Awards are coming up in early November, the judging process has been completed and the nominees have been revealed for the technical and creative categories.
As we reported when the awards
first arrived on the scene in April this year, they've have been founded by Generations star Winnie Modise who's joined forces with the KZN government for the event - the ceremony will be happening in Durban on Saturday, 2 November.
Soapies will be awarded in 18 categories in total: nine creative/technical categories and nine for performances. The performance nominees will be announced in the next couple of weeks.
Where are they?!
As you'll see from the nominees list, Rhythm City, Scandal! and Muvhango are notably missing.
Why? We asked. This is what e.tv told us: "e.tv has declined to participate in this year’s Royalty Soapie Awards. The Channel did not have sufficient information about the awards, it's judging processes and overall objective. We have made plans to meet with the organisers later this year to discuss the prospects of e.tv participating next year."
Our interpretation of what they had to say: they're terrified that the awards will turn out to be another SAFTAs and want other soapies to get burned first if they are!
As for Muvhango ... the show's entered the performance categories but not the technical categories because they feel that their technical department hasn't had the consistency required to award particular people in each category.
According to Muvhango spokesperson Kgalema Mametse, there's been a lot of change in various departments e.g. their costume, make-up and writing departments so they felt that they didn't want to enter these categories.
Mzansi Magic soapies iNkaba and Zabalaza also didn't enter. We've asked the channel for comment as to why but hadn't received a response at the time of this article going live. Our guess is it has to do with the fact that the channel entered isiBaya and wants to focus on it instead.
The nomineesThe soapies that
are in the running are:
Creative Categories
Outstanding Writing TeamBinneland
Generations
isiBaya
Isidingo
The Wild
Outstanding Set DesignBinneland
Generations
isiBaya
Isidingo
The Wild
Outstanding Wardrobe7de Laan
Binneland
Generations
isiBaya
The Wild
Outstanding Make-up & HairBinneland
Generations
isiBaya
The Wild
Technical Categories
Outstanding Directing Team7de Laan
Binneland
isiBaya
Isidingo
The Wild
Outstanding Art Direction7de Laan
Binneland
Generations
isiBaya
Outstanding Editing TeamBinneland
Generations
isiBaya
Isidingo
The Wild
Outstanding Lighting7de Laan
Binneland
Generations
isiBaya
Isidingo
Outstanding Casting DirectorSusan Rossouw for Binneland
Phophi Mulaudzi for Generations
Kutlwano Ditsele & Angus Gibson for isiBaya