The Story⚡
South Africa is stealing the global spotlight, shattering records with five nominations at the 2025 International Emmy Awards, proving that Mzansi’s stories of crime, courage, and childhood wonder are captivating the world.
Tell Me More
The 2025 International Emmy Awards, announced on September 26, 2025, by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, feature 64 nominees across 16 categories from a record 26 countries. South Africa ranks third overall in nominations, trailing only the United Kingdom (with 10) and Brazil (with six), a remarkable leap that underscores the country’s burgeoning television industry, fueled by platforms like Showmax, DStv, and MultiChoice.
This year’s haul builds on South Africa’s previous Emmy successes, including wins for shows like “Reyka” in 2022, but marks a historic high, with diverse entries spanning true crime, drama, documentaries, and kids’ programming.
Leading the charge is British actress Charlotte Hope’s nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in “Catch Me a Killer,” a gripping true-crime miniseries produced by Kowalski Films, LMP 51, Showmax, and Night Train Media. Hope portrays Micki Pistorius, South Africa’s pioneering forensic psychologist and the country’s first serial killer profiler, who in the 1990s delved into the minds of notorious murderers to aid police investigations.
Adapted from Pistorius’s memoir, the 11-episode series, which premiered in 2024 on Showmax and later streamed internationally, explores her personal toll from immersing in dark cases amid post-apartheid turmoil. Hope described the part as emotionally taxing, requiring deep research into criminal psychology to authentically capture Pistorius’s groundbreaking work.
In the Drama Series category, “Koek” (translated as “Cake”) from Wolflight Productions stands out as a bold Afrikaans-language entry. This 2024 crime dramedy follows Christelle Smit, a seemingly ordinary Cape Town housewife played by Cindy Swanepoel, who uncovers her husband’s affair with a stripper named Candi Floss and spirals into the city’s seedy criminal underworld. Blending dark humor with thriller elements, the show has been renewed for a second season following its acclaim on Showmax and international pickups by Sky and NBCUniversal. Critics praise its fresh take on female empowerment and Cape Town’s underbelly, with Swanepoel noting the role’s mix of vulnerability and grit as key to its appeal.
Shifting to non-fiction, “School Ties” by IdeaCandy earns a nod in the Documentary category. This hard-hitting four-part series, which aired on M-Net in 2024, exposes grooming and sexual abuse by sports coaches in some of South Africa’s elite boys’ schools, drawing from real survivor testimonies and expert insights. Featuring interviews with victims, psychologists, and child protection specialists like Luke Lamprecht and Dumisile Nala, it highlights systemic failures in education and sports institutions, sparking national conversations on child safety. The docuseries has been lauded for its bravery in breaking the “code of silence” around abuse in prestigious environments.
Sports fans will cheer for “Chasing the Sun 2,” nominated in Sports Documentary, produced by T+W for SuperSport. This five-part sequel to the 2020 Emmy-nominated original chronicles the Springboks’ dramatic path to defending their Rugby World Cup title in 2023, featuring behind-the-scenes footage, player interviews, and emotional highs from matches against France, England, and New Zealand. Highlighting coach Rassie Erasmus’s strategies and the team’s national unity impact, it’s been called “the greatest rugby documentary ever” by RugbyPass and is available on platforms like Showmax and RugbyPass TV.
Rounding out the list is “Playroom Live” from Eclipse Television Productions, nominated in the Kids: Factual & Entertainment category. Airing on DStv’s Play Room channel (launched in 2023), this interactive live show combines education and entertainment with South African-themed content, featuring games, stories, and social media integration to engage young viewers.
Relaunched as “Play Room Live 2.0” in early 2025, it features local talent and themes, promoting learning through play in a 24-hour kids’ channel format. The nomination celebrates its innovative approach to culturally relevant children’s programming.
These nods reflect South Africa’s storytelling evolution, tackling real issues while entertaining globally, with MultiChoice playing a pivotal role in four of the five productions.
In Summary
With these five nominations, South Africa not only sets a continental record but also signals a new era for African media on the world stage—previous years saw at most two nods per African country, making this a 150% surge that could inspire more investment in local content creation.
The winners will be revealed at the gala in New York on November 24, 2025—could this be the year Mzansi brings home multiple trophies? Fingers Crossed.
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