More success for Skoonheid

Cape Town – South African actor Deon Lotz walked away with the award for best actor at the Zurich Film Festival for his performance in Skoonheid.

The 7th Zurich Film Festival announced its winners on Saturday, the last day of the 11-day film festival.

Lotz won the award for Outstanding Performance By An Actor for Skoonheid, in which he portrays a middle-aged family man who develops a conflicted infatuation with a 23-year-old son of an old friend.

Skoonheid made headlines in May when it became the first Afrikaans film to be shown at the illustrious Cannes Film Festival. The film also walked away with the Queer Palm award for its contributions to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender issues.

Skoonheid, directed by Oliver Hermanus, has also been selected as the South African entrant for the Best Foreign Language Film category at next year's Oscars and it recently secured an American distribution deal with TLA Releasing.

A list of the winners:

International Feature Film Competition
Take Shelter by Jeff Nichols (US)

Outstanding Performance By An Actor
Deon Lotz for Skoonheid

Outstanding Performance By An Actress
Corinne Masiero for Louise Wimmer

International Documentary Film Competition
Buck by Cindy Meehl (US)

German-Language Feature Film Competition
Atmen/Breathing by Karl Markovics (Austria)

German-Language Documentary Film Competition
Darwin by Nick Brandestini (Switzerland)

Critics Choice Award
Sykt Lykkelig/Happy, Happy by Anne Sewitsky (Norway)

Audience Award
Unter Wasser Atmen — Das Zweite Lebe Des Dr. Nils Jent by Andri Hinnen and Stefan (Muggli, Switzerland)