Frieze Films Scoops Grant De Sousa

“Grant’s a major talent who’s already produced award-winning commercials,” says Frieze Films’ executive producer Jo Barber. “He’s a natural storyteller with a considered style.“

Still just 32, Grant has built up a distinctive but varied reel during his six-year directing career.

Grant’s first advert was the anti-Tik PSA There’s No Going Back, which earned him the 2007 Cannes CFP-E / Shots Young Director Award.

In 2009, Grant won Best Overall PSA from the M-Net VUKA! Awards for The African Diamond Council Conflict Free. The Y&R Cape Town spot won five of the eight awards in the Professional category. It also received the Creative Social Advertising Award from Humandoc International Film Festival in Poland and was shortlisted for both a Loerie Award and The New York Festival’s United Nations Department of Public Information Award.

In addition to his hard-hitting PSAs, Grant has shown he can deliver on ads like Nissan Tough City, which has over 120 000 views on YouTube; that he can get great performances from children in spots like Aromat Or Else; and that he can work with celebrities, like Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim) for the IEC or Hugh Masekela, who stars in Old Fashioned Values, his beautifully-crafted period piece for Assupol.

Grant made the top seven in Kevin Spacey’s Jameson First Shot short film competition and recently won Cinema Nouveau’s Win Your Own Film Fest competition, which will see him screen five of his favourite films at The Grant De Sousa Film Festival in April 2013.

“Grant is one of the hungriest creative forces I have met in a long time,” says Jo. “With our experience and high-end production infrastructure behind him, we expect his work and profile to move onto another level this year.”