Sydney Taivavashe

Last updated
Sydney Taivavashe
Born1991 (1991) (age 32)
Citizenship
Occupations
  • Director
  • screenwriter
  • producer
Known forFilmmaking
Notable work Gonarezhou: The Movie
Awards National Arts Merit Awards

Sydney Taivavashe (born March 20,1991) is a Zimbabwean film director, producer and screenwriter. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life

Sydney Taivavashe was born in 1991 in Masvingo, Zimbabwe where he grew up. [3]

Career

Sydney made his debut film in 2006, a short film titled The Terrific Nights. [4] His first feature film Through The Night was nominated at 2014 National Arts Merit Awards in the outstanding feature film category. [5]

In 2017, Sydney won a NAMA award for directing Seiko, a silent short film. [6] In the same year he partnered with the Great Zimbabwe University to produce a feature film titled Solo naMutsai, portraying the experience of students at the university who succumb to peer pressure. [7] In 2019, Sydney wrote, directed and produced an anti-poaching awareness film titled Gonarezhou: The Movie . [8] The film had its world premiere at the Pan African Film Festival in Hollywood in February of 2020. [9] Sydney's next film was the 2021 biopic film The Story of Nehanda a movie about the trial of Zimbabwean iconic spirit medium Mbuya Nehanda. [10] [11]

In 2022, Sydney received another National Art Merit Award for his film Poor Cousins which won the Outstanding Screen Production- Full length film award. [12]

Filmography

Awards

YearCeremonyAwardResult
2014 National Arts Merit Awards Outstanding Film Through the Night [14] Nominated
2016 Zimbabwe International Film Festival Best International DirectorNominated
2017 National Arts Merit Awards Outstanding Short Film Seiko [15] Won
2020 Pan-African Film Festival Programmers Best First Feature Narrative Gonarezhou [16] Won
2020 Pan-African Film Festival Best First Feature Director [17] Won

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References

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  2. "Anti-poaching film to debut in Hollywood".
  3. "Masvingo film producer breaks new ground". 9 June 2021.
  4. "Taivavashe basks in NAMA glory" . Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  5. "Chihombori revels with NAMA award". The Financial Gazette. 2014-02-20. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  6. "NAMA Award, A Magnetic Force". Zimbo Jam. 2017-02-27. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  7. newsday (2017-05-15). "Taivavashe, GZU resurrect 'Solo Na Mutsai'". NewsDay Zimbabwe. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  8. comments, Blessing Masakadza • 2 October 2018 1:59PM • 0. "ED's daughter in anti-poaching film". DailyNews Live. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  9. Kan, Toni (2020-03-09). "The African Filmmaker's LA experience". The Lagos Review. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
  10. "'The story of Nehanda' hits right note".
  11. "Mbuya Nehanda's life to be told in new movie".
  12. Earground (2022-02-28). "Full 20th NAMA winners list". earground. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
  13. "The world news platform".
  14. "NAMA nominees out". 6 February 2014.
  15. "NAMA 2017 winners list in full". 19 February 2017.
  16. "Gonarezhou the Movie Wins Best First Feature Narrative at Pan African Film Festival • #enthuse". 24 February 2020.
  17. "Pan African Film Festival Wraps & Winners -". 4 March 2020.