Charlize, Tsotsi golden pair?
2006-01-31 22:28
Johannesburg - A golden Hollywood double beckons for South Africa after Charlize Theron and the township film, Tsotsi, were both nominated on Tuesday for an Oscar, the most-sought-after movie-industry award.
As far as is known, this is the first time that South Africa can boast of two Oscar nominations in the same year.
Charlize, the star from Benoni who won an Oscar two years ago for best actress, has been nominated again in this category - this time for her role in the drama North Country.
Tsotsi is competing in the category for best foreign film.
This is the second consecutive year that a South African film has been nominated in this category.
The Aids drama, Yesterday was nominated last year.
Tsotsi, which has already won several international awards, competed last month for two Bafta awards, the British version of the Oscars, and before that for a Golden Globe award.
Never imagined it would make it
Tsotsi is based on playwright Athol Fugard's only novel.
Tsotsi scriptwriter and director Gavin Hood said in reaction to the nomination that he had never thought a South African film in "tsotsi language" would grip the imagination so much.
"We made a film that's close to the hearts of all the team. I'm overjoyed."
At an Oscar party in Caesar's Gauteng at Johannesburg International Airport, the young star of Tsotsi, Presley Chweneyagae, and some of his co-actors celebrated the film's nomination with various stakeholders in the industry and other guests.
Chweneyagae was speechless, and female star Terry Pheto shook her head in disbelief.
"It's my first film and we get an Oscar nomination!"
But, Tsotsi faces fierce competition.
The favourite for this Oscar is the Palestinian film, Paradise Now, which deals with two suicide bombers and won a Golden Globe last month.
The other nominations for best foreign film are the Italian film, Don't Tell, French film Joyeux Noel and German film Sophia Scholl - the final days.
Charlize, who also competed for a Golden Globe, also has an outside chance in the race for the gold statue.
In 2004, she was the overwhelming favourite for her role as serial killer Aileen Wournos in Monster and her Oscar came as no surprise.
'Opposition' actresses won Golden Globes
As the single-mother mineworker, Josey Aimes, in North Country, a film about sexual harassment at a mine in Minnesota, her acting is robust.
But, there is doubt whether it will be good enough to ward off the onslaught of actresses such as Felicity Huffman and Reese Witherspoon.
Both of them won Golden Globes and it seems a certainty that one of them will walk off with the Oscar.
Better known for her role in the TV series, Desperate Housewives, Huffman plays a man on the eve of a sex-change operation in Transamerica.
Witherspoon shines in the role of June Carter, second wife of country-music legend Johnny Cash in the biographical drama, Walk the Line.
The other actresses nominated in this category are the Britons Judi Dench for Mrs Henderson Presents and Keira Knightley for her role as the heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, in the new version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
North Country and Tsotsi both will be released on Friday in South Africa.