Actor Antony Coleman, a former Pietermaritzburg man who went to school at Maritzburg College before going on to study drama at Wits, has won the award for Best Actor in a Feature Film for his performance in the South African film Gums & Noses at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.

This is the largest film festival in the world and annually showcases over 300 films from around the world, including world premieres, features, shorts, documentaries and animations.

Gums & Noses, which is part of M-Net's Original Movies Initiative, is directed by Craig Friemond, who also wrote the original play on which the film is based, and stars Lionel Newton and Shaun Taylor as well as Coleman. Freimond brought the play to the Witness Hilton Arts Festival in 2001, and Coleman and Newton were also in the cast then. The blackly comic story deals with a young advertising copywriter who can't handle the pressure without a little help from drugs.

The film was named as Best Feature Film at the Apollo Film Festival in Victoria West in October. It has already had its South African television premiere on M-Net and will be screened again on December 13 at 13h00.

Quoted in M-Net's press release yesterday, speaking about the award, Coleman said, "Working on Gums & Noses was such a great experience - I was so lucky to be involved. Everyone really pulled together to make it a success, and any awards this film wins is a tribute to the team who put in all the long hours to turn it into the fantastic movie it turned out to be."

Coleman was also seen on the KZN stage in Anthony Akerman's Old Boys which was staged at the Loft theatre in the Playhouse in 1996. – Margaret von Klemperer