If you've browsed the
2011 SAFTA Award Nominees you'll have noticed that there's a very important category missing: there is no category for Best Actor in a TV Drama.
Like us you obviously immediately thought that it was a mistake.
The shocker: it
isn't. We assumed that the category had mistakenly been left off the list of nominees when they were announced on Wednesday. We contacted the National Film and Video Foundation to find out who the nominees are for it and discovered that there are
no nominees, hence there is
no category.
We couldn't believe it either.
The SAFTAs claims to want to be the most important TV awards ceremony in South Africa and yet they've failed to include one of the three
most prestigious categories of any TV award ceremony.
The categories Best Drama, Best Actor and Best Actress in a Drama Series are universally regarded as
the most prestigious categories at all award TV ceremonies and suddenly one of them has been removed without explanation.
Ultimately what the awards are saying is that there is
no lead actor in a South African drama who is "good enough" to receive an award.
Besides the twisted message it sends to both the acting fraternity and viewers, it's also sexist. Imagine the outcry from feminist groups if the Best Actress in a TV Drama category was suddenly ommitted.
Can you imagine if the Golden Globes or the Emmy Awards suddenly decided that there are no Best Actors to nominate and simply left out the category one year? It would
never happen.
As for why it happened - we have no answers unfortunately. We tried to interview the chairperson of the judging panel Paul Raleigh to get comment on the reason, but he was unavailable.
Since the SAFTAs are unable to come up with nominations for the category - how about you nominate? Submit your nominations for Best Lead Actor in a TV Drama.