South African film director Darrell Roodt made an international name for himself with the debut feature A Place of Weeping (1986), a passionate condemnation of apartheid that the New York Times hailed as “… remarkable and groundbreaking”.

Educated at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, he gained further acclaim for The Stick (1988) another look at the anti-apartheid struggle. In 1990, he made his first film with American backing, Jobman (1990) which opened The London Film Festival.

One of Roodt’s best-known films is his adaptation of the anti-apartheid stage musical Sarafina! (1992), starring Whoopi Goldberg which the LA Times called “A stirring, emotional, powerful ten. It’s an important inspirational film that shimmers with Oscar gold”.

Darrell Roodt was nominated for an Oscar, for his film “Yesterday” in 2004. It was acclaimed by Time magazine as “one of the best films of the year.”

He has made over twenty features working with Oscar-nominated actors such as James Earl Jones, Richard Harris, and Melissa Leo. He has also worked successfully with Oscar-nominated composers such as John Barry and Phillip Glass.

He has won numerous awards at various festivals throughout the world including a Humanitarian Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2004, as well as the Prime Minister’s prize at the Taormina Film Festival in Italy for his outstanding contribution to the English language cinema alongside Peter Weir and Stephen Frears.

His most recent international feature is a big-budget biopic of Winnie Mandela starring Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson and the Oscar-nominated Terrence Howard as Winnie and Nelson Mandela.

His film “Little One” was South Africa’s’ Official Entry to the Oscars in the Foreign Film Category in 2013.