South Africa: National Film & TV Awards South Africa has officially announced its 2026 nominees across 30 categories to recognise outstanding work across film, television and digital entertainment. This year the event will mark its fourth edition. The award ceremony is scheduled to take place on Thursday, October 19, 2026 at the Theatre of Marcellus, Emperors Palace, in Johannesburg.
According to NFTA, this year shortlisting of films, TV shows and individual personalities were done on the basis of popularity including local favorites and productions who got the international audience attention. The 2026 National Film & TV awards ceremony is organized by the National Film Academy, a United Kingdom based organization.
In the awards ceremony NFTA recognised productions and personalities across the entertainment industry. The film category includes, best feature film, best actor in a film, best actress in a film and best director. The TV categories feature best TV Drama Series, best scripted TV series and acting categories.
Moreover, the realty and entertainment segment includes best competition show, best dating show and best entertainment show. In the nominations there are also categories for documentaries and comedy including best documentary and best comedian. In digital entertainment the nominations of best podcast and other entertainment related categories were announced. NFTS also released nominees for best TV presenter, best male and female TV personality.
The announcements of the nominees officially released on Monday, October 19, 2026. The winners for all the 30 categories will be decided on the public voting results. The winner’s name will be revealed live at the ceremony on Thursday, October 19, 2026. Public voting is now live and interested individuals can visit the official website of the NFTA for voting their personal favorites.
Additionally, this year adding of international attention was done after the success of the “The Polygamist” series. The series was streamed on Netflix platform on June, 12 2026 with 22 episodes. The series was based on a Zimbabwean author Sue Nyathi novel “The Polygamist”. According to reports, the series got 27.6 million views on Netflix and secured the place in number one in 21 countries and top 10 positions in 62 countries.
Notably, the first edition of the National Film & TV Awards South Africa took place on October, 21 2023, at the Opera Theatre in Pretoria.