Sibs Shongwe-La Mer's coming-of-age film, Necktie Youth, has won big at the Durban International Film Festival. The 24-year-old director from Johannesburg scooped R25,000 for best local feature film and best direction awards.During the 10-day festival 255 films were shown.Necktie Youth follows a group of young middle-class South Africans as they attend white-powdered parties a year after a friend has live-streamed her suicide.This unconventional film shines a light on the harsh reality of millennials navigating sexual identity, promiscuity and cultural erosion in an age where you are only as good as your last selfie.Shot in black and white, the film contains none of the usual local stereotypes, such as protagonists with causes they have to die for, shacks and township gangsters or people dying from incurable diseases.Although the subject matter is dark and heavy, there are moments of comic relief that seem effortlessly and authentically to capture life in the city.It comes as no surprise that the jury at the festival hailed Necktie Youth as "a film desperate to reconcile the seemingly disparate realities of its country, and whose urgent questions about South African life are posed with such mischievous energy that they cannot help provoke debate, itself one of the most important responsibilities of cinema".This portrait of the reality of current younger generations is likely to make for intense discussions around coffee and dinner tables.The jury for the local feature film category at the festival comprised filmmakers Lizelle Bischoff, Thandeka Zwana and Jenna Cato Bass.The trio concluded that Shongwe La-Mer's unique and contemporary voice weaved together "poetic images and a striking view of South African youth with a boldness seldom seen in South African cinema"...