Authenticity above awards for director

"I''m from Manchester - a bloke from Manchester telling this quintessentially South African story," gasped Justin Chadwick yesterday.

He was talking about the magnitude of the task of directing Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom.

Back home in the UK, another biopic, Oliver Hirschbiegel's take on Britain's favourite daughter, Diana, Princess of Wales, starring Naomi Watts, has been slated, and reportedly bombed at the box office both in the UK and the US.

Could it be that the British were so possessive of Diana that they resented her story being told by a foreigner, or is there "biopic fatigue", what with recent films on Alfred Hitchcock's life [Hitchcock, by Sacha Gervasi], Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln by Steven Spielberg] and pianist Liberace [Behind the Candelabra]?

There are already murmurs of Idris Elba and Naomie Harris being nominated for their portrayals of Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom.

Given that Daniel Day-Lewis was named best actor in a leading role for Lincoln, Ben Affleck's Argo won the Oscar for best picture and The King's Speech, with Colin Firth, took four Oscars two years ago, does knowledge of previous successes mess with the focus of a director and producer (in this instance, Anant Singh)?

Chadwick said talk of awards scared him. "The trinkets and trophies are really super but most important is that the film feels true to the people portrayed; that was the only intention."

His reaction to hearing that Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom was opening on the same weekend as Leon Schuster's Your Country Needs You was: "Oh my God - we've no chance."