Yay! I love seeing local artists and creatives winning all sorts of awards – and I am totally over the moon that local filmmaker Kate D’hotman took home to Jury Prize at the recent SundanceTV Short Competition for her short film, Life’s a Drag.

As part of her prize, Kate won a trip for two to London, which included a screening of her film at a SundanceTV event during Sundance Film Festival 2019 in London and her winning film will also be broadcast on SundanceTV, DStv channel 108, later in the year!

Life’s a Drag is a dark comedy about a depressed zombie named Bob. He used to be cool. He used to have groupies. He used to have all his body parts. Now, although the undead and the living have reached a truce, Bob is finding it hard to adjust. Life after death just isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

He’s in a dead-end job working for a narcissist, and he hasn’t been laid since before the Apocalypse. Up until now, he’s played by the rules, but Bob is reaching his breaking point, and he’s about to lose his temper… Life’s a Drag offers a hilarious reimagining of a world in the grip of a zombie apocalypse.

Commenting on the film, Mike Plante, Senior Programmer for Sundance Institute, said: “Proof that the zombie comedy genre can still have fun ideas and remind you how you are almost a zombie in today’s world.”

“I made Life’s a Drag because I wanted to have some fun and flex my directing muscles again, and hoped that we could enter it into a few festivals to get some exposure in the lead up to my first feature, which I hope to shoot later this year,” D’hotman said. “But I certainly didn’t expect to win such a prestigious award!”

“It’s a huge honour and I’m so glad that the film has been so well received. The team all worked really hard, on a less than a shoestring budget and I couldn’t be prouder of everyone,” adds Kate.

Life’s a Drag features performances by Damon Berry (Black Butterflies, My Father’s War), Joe Vaz (Black Sails, Good Omens), Garth Breytenbach (Beyond the River, Troy: Fall of a City) and Hlubi Mboya (Isidingo, The Docket).

The Jury Prize for the 2019 SundanceTV Shorts Competition was judged on a number of criteria, including creativity, entertainment value, original storytelling and production values.

The jury, led by Mike Plante of Sundance Institute, included Harold Gronenthal from SundanceTV, Aletta Alberts, Executive Head of Content Strategy and Third Party Channels, Multichoice and award-winning South African director and producer Sara Blecher (Ayanda, Mayfair).

The SundanceTV Shorts Competition has been supported by DStv in an exclusive partnership.

SundanceTV is available exclusively in South Africa on DStv 108.