Greg Latter’s BLACK BUTTERFLIES cleans up at the South African Film and TV Awards 2012

The Greg Latter scripted BLACK BUTTERFLIES, having already experienced awards success at the Tribeca Film Festival and Dutch film awards The Golden Calves, enjoyed a triumphant homecoming, winning the majority of the film prizes - including best feature film - at the South African Film and TV Awards ceremony on Sunday evening (11th March).

After its American release last week, BLACK BUTTERFLIES was nominated in nine categories, and ended up garnering the awards for Best Feature Film; Best Cinematography; Best Production Design; Best Music Composition; Best Costume Design and Best Hair and Make-up in a Feature Film.

The South African Film and Television Awards, or the Golden Horns, are now in their sixth year. They are awarded by the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa for excellence in the creative visual arts, performance and drama. Previous winners of the main award include the Oscar winning Tsotsi and another of Greg's films, Goodbye Bafana.

Greg's latest project, NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON, directed by the Palme D'Or, Academy Award and Golden Globe winning Bille August, went into production last week.

Greg Latter's BLACK BUTTERFLIES opens in Manhattan to excellent reviews

The Greg Latter scripted BLACK BUTTERFLIES was a critics' pick in this week's New York Times ahead of its New York opening. The film previously played in the city during the Tribeca Film Festival where it garnered strong reviews and made many critics' festival watch lists, including Sound on Sight and indieWIRE.

BLACK BUTTERFLIES, directed by Paula van der Oest, is the story of Ingrid Jonker, the women hailed as the South African Sylvia Plath. Greg's script is set in 1960s Cape Town, as a young Jonker discovers her creative voice amid the stifling atmosphere of apartheid and the overbearing eye of her rigid father, a government censorship minister (played by Rutger Hauer). As tensions rise, Ingrid witnesses an unconscionable event that will determine the route of both her creative and personal life.

The full New York Times article can be found here.

You can watch the trailer here.

Greg Latter’s BLACK BUTTERFLIES wins best film at the Golden Calves

BLACK BUTTERFLIES, scripted by Greg Latter, took the main prize at the Dutch national film awards, the Golden Calves, on Friday night. The South African set drama won best film, as well as receiving the best actress award for Carice van Houten's performance as poet Ingrid Jonker (following on from her win at the Tribeca Film Festival), and the award for best editing.

BLACK BUTTERFLIES, directed by Paula van der Oest, is the story of Ingrid Jonker, the women hailed as the South African Sylvia Plath. Greg's script is set in 1960s Cape Town, as a young Jonker discovers her creative voice amid the stifling atmosphere of apartheid and the overbearing eye of her rigid father, a government censorship minister (played by Rutger Hauer). As tensions rise, Ingrid witnesses an unconscionable event that will determine the route of both her creative and personal life.

You can watch the trailer here.

Greg Latter is a prolific screenwriter whose films have won awards at film festivals throughout the world. His next project, NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON, is currently in pre-production and due out in 2013. He currently resides in Knysna, South Africa.

Praise for BLACK BUTTERFLIES:

One of Sound On Sight's Five Films to Watch from Tribeca Film Festival: 'As a woman governed by equal parts genius and mercurial gloom, Jonker could inspire passion but never, it seems, love-a sad truth critically conveyed by van Houten. Jonker's inner turmoil mirrored her country's upheaval, but van der Oest is never heavy-handed with her parallels of the poet and the South African maelstrom happening around her: The relationships in the film are a lens through which to view a cultural zeitgeist, but the people always have center stage, not the politics.'

One of indieWIRE's 'Ten Films iW is excited about at Tribeca.'

'Van Houten (Black Book) is marvellous to watch, a tough, passionate whirlwind of an actress who summons the steely verve of a Judy Davis. She gives real backbone to the familiar arc of the self-destructive artist pushing against the social constraints of her time (South Africa in the Apartheid clampdown of the 1960s) while engaging in turbulent relationships with difficult lovers and a repressive politico father who, in horrific irony, was South Africa's censorship chief.' -- GreenCine Daily

BLACK BUTTERFLIES a Cannes pick

The film, scripted by Greg Latter, has been selected by the Hollywood Reporter as one of six not to be missed at this year's Festival.

BLACK BUTTERFLIES is directed by Dutch filmmaker Paula van der Oest and tells the tragic story of apartheid-era South African poet, Ingrid Jonker.

The film, which generated strong reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival, stars Carice van der Houten as Ingrid, alongside Liam Cunningham and Rutger Hauer.

The other films chosen were LA DELICATESSE, CITIES, GREAT HOPE SPRINGS, FRIENDS WITH KIDS and SOLO.

The Cannes Film Festival runs until 22nd May.

Lailaps to produce Greg Latter's adaptation of award-winning real-life drama by Peter Harris

Lailaps Pictures have optioned Greg Latter's adaptation of Peter Harris's award-winning courtroom thriller, A JUST DEFIANCE (South African title: IN A DIFFERENT TIME) and Bille August has been attached to direct. August directed one of Latter's earlier screenplays, 'Goodbye Bafana'

A JUST DEFIANCE is a devastating and moving book which tells the true story of an elite team of anti-apartheid soldiers on trial. Peter Harris was their lawyer.

For the full story, click here.

Praise for A JUST DEFIANCE:
Winner of the SA Sunday Times Literary Alan Paton Non-Fiction Prize 2009, Shortlisted for Booksellers' Choice 2009 and the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize 2008/9, Jenny & Co's Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and Best Book of the Year 2008.

'Scrupulously written, heartbreaking and powerful.' -- Alexandra Fuller, New York Times

'Reads like a John Grisham novel ….a compelling read.' -- The Telegraph

'This book is a triumph, partly because of Harris's humility and honesty.' -- The Sunday Times

'Stunning ... a page-turner with a heart.' -- The Observer