Brett Michael Innes

Brett Michael INNES (South Africa) is a bestselling author and award-winning filmmaker. He graduated from AFDA, the Oscar-winning South African film school, on a scholarship from the National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF) of South Africa. His writing and directing debut, Sink (2017), premiered In Competition at the Atlanta Film Festival and has been heralded by local critics as a 'breakout film that sets a new standard for South African cinema’. This saw him win the SAFTA for Best Film and Best Screenplay as well as Best Edit with co-editor Nicolas Costaras. His second feature, an adaptation of the iconic novel, Fiela se kind/Fiela's Child (2019), premiered In Competition at Tallinn Black Nights and was awarded the SAFTA for Best Film and Best Screenplay in 2020. It has also been nominated for Best Film in an African Language at the 2020 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). Simultaneously, his best-selling novel The Story of Racheltjie De Beer (2012) was adapted into a feature in 2019, with Innes working as screenwriter with director Matthys Boshoff. Innes often explores moral themes such as societal imbalances and privilege with hard-hitting dramas, but makes his mockumentary comedy debut with Daryn's Gym (2021), world premiere at the South African Independent Film Festival.