The Hopeville feature film, which was released nationally in South Africa in September 2010, has been making in-roads at the international film festivals and awards events.

Hopeville is a film produced by Heartlines, which is a beneficiary of the Convergence Partners Foundation.

The Hopeville feature film won two SAFTA Awards for Best Production Design (Karel Flint) and Best Lead Actor (Themba Ndaba).  Other nominations included Best Cinematography, Best Editor, Best Hair/Make-up and Best Music composition.

In addition, Hopeville has received nine nominations for the AMAA, (African Movie Academy Awards) including:

• Best Production Design;
• Best Cinematography;
• Best Screenplay;
• Best Editing;
• Best Young Actor- Junior Singo;
• Best Actress in Supporting Role- Mary Twala;
• Best Actor in Supporting Role- Desmond Dube;
• Best Actor in Leading Role- Themba Ndaba; and
• Best Film.

The 2011 Africa Movie Academy Awards, now in its 7^th year, will take place from March 21 to 27 in Yenagoa, Nigeria.

Hopeville was first developed by HEARTLINES, Curious Pictures and SABC Education as a six part mini-series which was broadcast on SABC.  The mini series went on to win a Rose’Dor in Switzerland and a coveted nomination at the International Emmy’s in New York City.

Hopeville will also be screening at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, FESPACO in Burkina Faso, Afrika Film Festival in Belgium and Tiburon Film Festival in California.

HEARTLINES CEO, Dr Garth Japhet, said that he was thrilled that the film, which has a compelling message of ordinary citizens taking action for the good of the community, was reaching audiences worldwide. “With this film, and the previous series of eight award-winning values-based films, HEARTLINES is making a significant contribution to building the social fabric, not only of South Africa, but internationally as well.”

Hopeville Press Release

Heartlines, a values, transformation and upliftment initiative is working to finalise its Forgood channel to inform, connect and inspire South Africans for social action. The Convergence Partners Foundation is a founding partner of Heartlines Forgood social networking platform.

The support provided by Convergence Foundation included financial as well as advisory assistance in setting up the platform. This was done in partnership with the investee companies in the Convergence Partners portfolio.

Convergence Foundation believes strongly in the need to develop, build and strengthen the value system within our society and that technologies such as social networking platforms can contribute significantly to achieving these objectives.

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