Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Major Coup for Young Filmmaker

17/12/2018

17 December, 2018 - 06:03

Director Jarryd Coetsees multiple award-winning short film The Suit is now streaming to over 100 million subscribers in over 200 countries and territories on Amazon Prime.

Coetsee says: Amazon Primes vision dovetails brilliantly with ours and were thrilled about our new partnership and its global reach. Were also so grateful to align with such a prestigious repertoire. This is just the beginning of many exciting developments to come.

The Suits selection by the worldwide technology giant comes hot on the heels of its stellar festival run comprising over 45 film festivals including three Oscar qualifiers. The SAFTA-winning film was also selected by the Academie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema (Frances national academy of cinema which gives Frances highest honour for film, the Cesar Award) for its prestigious Les Nuits en Or (Golden Nights) event which saw the film screened in nine European capitals, 24 cities and towns across France and a gala evening hosted by UNESCO in Paris and attended by UN dignitaries and leading French actors and film-makers.

Coetsee faced significant challenges to complete the film. So many people discouraged me from making a short film, or they simply walked away. They said it isnt lucrative and that its a waste of time. And boy were they proven wrong. They clearly held little grasp of my motivations and aspirations. It gives me a deep sense of satisfaction that I stuck to my guns. My ambition was to tell this story in the best possible way through the medium of the short film. Incidentally, it proved to be a stepping stone to extraordinary opportunities.

Get More Film Business South Africa

Select your Membership

Based on the classic short story by Can Themba, The Suit joins an assortment of illustrious exclusive shows, original content and a slate of first-run US TV. The NFVF-funded and AFDA-backed film is set during the apartheid regimes forced removals in 1950s Sophiatown and tells the story of a man who forces his wife to treat her lovers suit as if it were a person, making a substantial comment on the oppressed becoming the oppressor.

Coetsee says: I think the story is thematically quite prescient. One only needs to consider the staggering oppressive acts, the extent of the abuse of executive power in South Africa, the subversion of the criminal justice system and state-owned enterprises to serve nefarious sectional interests as explosively revealed in the commission of inquiry into state capture to grasp the storys lasting relevance.

The film stars Atandwa Kani, Phuthi Nakene and John Kani and was produced by Luke Sharland of Mandala Films. Coetsee says that it is an incredible moment for everyone associated with the film. The overwhelmingly positive reaction to the film is a testament to the enduring transformative power of the story and our successful collaboration. Its tough to make a short film in South Africa - let alone a period film. I was fortunate to have such a supportive team and together we realized my vision exactly as Id imagined it, which rarely happens.

Short Films

Africa South Africa
LINK: http://www.filmcontact.com/news/south-africa/major-coup-young-filmmake...
See more stories from filmcontact

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

05/06/2026

Fahad Haider Joins NESN as VP, Operations and Engineering

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/06/2026

GatesAir Opens New Brazil Office to Back DTV+ Rollout

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/06/2026

Supreme Court Upholds FCC's Authority to Levy Fines

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/06/2026

Montclair State University Will Run NJ PBS

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/06/2026

Merkhet's Sam Matheny Urges Congress to Expedite BPS Deployment

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/06/2026

Sinclair Launches NextGen TV Campaign in Columbus, Ohio

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/06/2026

NAB Releases New Keep the Game On' Spot

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/06/2026

NCTC, ACAC Going to Disney World for Independent Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/06/2026

Nielsen Announces New Integrations for Improved Measurement

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/06/2026

Frequency Launches In-Scene Advertising to Accelerate Str...

Frequency, the engine powering many of the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced the launch of In-Scene Advertising, a new monetiza...

05/06/2026

Berklee Study Reveals Video Has Become Essential to Music Careers

Berklee Study Reveals Video Has Become Essential to Music Careers Survey findings show social platforms have become the primary source of music for video cont...

05/06/2026

RT Radio 1 Folk Awards 2026 Date Announcement

RT Radio 1 Folk Awards to take place on Tuesday 10th November 2026, Vicar Street, Dublin Moya Brennan, D nal Lunny, Mary Black and Christy Moore among previou...

04/06/2026

Sony's New PTZ Cameras Deliver 4K 60p; New STARVIS Sensor Meets Low-Light Demands

Sony Electronics is introducing the SRG-AS10, a 4K 60p-compatible PTZ auto-frami...

04/06/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Alex Albert, Texas A&M University

This recent grad from Spring, TX, led creative-video output for the Aggies' men's basketball team last season and has been producing video and creating ...

04/06/2026

USGA Brings AI Recaps, 3D Range Tracking, and Predictive Shot Tracing to U.S. Womens Open

For the first time at a women's golf major, every player in the field will r...

04/06/2026

Panasonic PT-RQ45 Projectors Power Lille Video Mapping Festival Opera House Installation

Three Panasonic PT-RQ45 40,000-lumen 3-Chip DLP projectors made their first live...

04/06/2026

Bitmovin and Akamai Support NRJ Groups Deployment of Akamai Adaptive Media Player 2

Bitmovin and Akamai have announced a collaboration with NRJ Group, a French mult...

04/06/2026

Telestream to Exhibit at InfoComm 2026 with Live Production and Media Workflow Demonstrations

Telestream will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7952), demonstrating media work...

04/06/2026

Sony Announces RIALTO 65 Image Sensor Block for VENICE 2, Targeting 2027 Release

Sony has announced the development of RIALTO 65, a 65mm format image sensor block for the VENICE 2 digital cinema camera, targeting release in the first half of...

04/06/2026

KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America to Exhibit 4K and Remote Production Solutions at InfoComm 2026

KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N8025, June ...

04/06/2026

Bell Media to Carry All 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 Matches Across TSN, RDS, and Streaming Platforms

Bell Media's TSN and RDS are the exclusive Canadian broadcasters of FIFA Wor...

04/06/2026

MASV Case Study: How MASV Reduced Miami HEAT's Road Game Video Transfer Times by 85%

The Challenge: Receiving Heavy Media Files From Road Games Quickly and ReliablyT...

04/06/2026

MASV Outlines Seven-Step Sports Analytics Workflow, Highlights File Transfer as Key Bottleneck

MASV, a managed file transfer platform used in broadcast and live sports product...

04/06/2026

NESN Appoints Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering

NESN has announced the appointment of Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering. Haider returns to NESN, where he previously served as Vice P...

04/06/2026

Sports Broadcaster, Executive, and Author David J. Halberstam Dies

David J. Halberstam, who spent almost 50 years in sports as a broadcaster and an executive, died June 2 after a years-long battle with brain cancer. Over his l...

04/06/2026

Grass Valleys Ben Dolinky on Offering Teachable Technology to College Students Across the Country

Although collegiate production programs are tasked with delivering high-quality ...

04/06/2026

Prime Video Caps First NBA Season With Sports Emmy Win, Carries In-House Production Into WNBA Campaign

California studio, two production trucks, global distribution system are combine...

04/06/2026

TikTok and Sundance Collab Launch Micro-Series Storytelling Program

New global program empowers and supports storytellers through scriptwriting course and access to industry experts TikTok and Sundance Institute today announce...

04/06/2026

Celemony announce Tonalic ARA support for Cubase & Nuendo

Steinberg DAWs now boast in-depth Tonalic integration Celemony's innovative virtual session musician plug-in has just received an update that brings ARA...

04/06/2026

GearExpo UK: Microphone Update

Get Hands-On With Over 20 Mic Brands GearExpo UK is fast approaching, and if you've been looking for a chance to check out some new mics, then you'r...

04/06/2026

Positive Grid launch Reactor amp range

Combos feature new Amplifier Intelligence engine Positive Grid's latest release sees the company introduce two new combo amplifiers that promise to offe...

04/06/2026

Is Your Job Making You Work this June?

Is Your Job Making You Work this June? 4 June, 2026 Media releases SBS Launches the World Cup Watchers' Rights Association to Stand Up For Australians&...

04/06/2026

Statement regarding unauthorised use of SBS logos on third party social content

Statement regarding unauthorised use of SBS logos on third party social content 4 June, 2026 Media releases SBS has become aware of social media posts in c...

04/06/2026

TiVo: TV Viewing Hits Post-Pandemic Peak

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

Bitmovin and Akamai Support NRJ Group to Deploy Next Gene...

Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure, and Akamai, the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business onli...

04/06/2026

American Underground Opens at American Tobacco Campus, Completing a 16-Year Full-Circle Story

American Underground (AU), the Startup Hub of the South and a community of mor...

04/06/2026

Nielsen: Thunder Rolls as NBA's Most-Watched Team

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

AI Drives Lenovo's 2026 FIFA World Cup Broadcast Plans

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

ATSC Conference Looks Beyond Traditional TV for 3.0 Success

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

ATSC Awards Highest Technical Honor to Julia Kenyon

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

Lumine Group to Acquire Synamedias Video Network Business

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

BFOA Launches 5th Annual Giving Day

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

Hemisphere Media Group Brings WAPA+ Fast Channel to Prime Video

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

APTS to Hold June 4 'Protect My Public Media Day'

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

NVIDIA and Microsoft Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI

NVIDIA and Microsoft Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI Brie Clayton June 3, 2026 0 Comments RTX Spark - a 1-Petaflop Superchip, the Full...

04/06/2026

Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade

Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade Brie Clayton June 3, 2026 0 Comments Simone Grattarola discusses shaping the look in DaVinci Resolve...