South Africa's Ayanda film continues to blaze trails - it bagged eight 2016 Africa Magic Viewer's Choice awards nominations and a standing ovation at the Boston Paramount Theatre in Massachusetts in the US. The film was nominated for best overall movie (Africa) and best movie (Southern Africa). The awards are scheduled for March.The cast and crew of the movie secured nominations for best writer (Trish Malone), best make-up artist (Louiza Calore), best director (Sara Blecher), best actress in a drama (Fulu Mugovhani), best cinematographer (Jonathan Kovel) and best sound editor (Guy Steer).Ayanda, in which award-winning actress Terry Pheto debuted as producer under her company Leading Lady Productions, was released in the US last month.The movie has already garnered international critical acclaim, having won the Special Jury prize in the World Fiction competition at the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival and screening to a sold-out crowd at the Anacostia Arts Centre in Washington DC last week.It received a standing ovation after its screening at the Paramount Theatre in Boston last week and is said to be the first black-produced film to be shown at the prestigious theatre.The movie's lead actress, Fulu Mugovhani, best known for her role as Anzani in the e.tv soapie Scandal, believes the film's success is largely due to its storyline which she says is not like the usual South African story being told to the world."They hardly see anything like this. It's not a war or crime and gangster, township kind of story. [It shows] that we love, we have fashion and we have a lot more going on outside of the struggle."She said: "More than anything, it's not a racial story - it's a universal story, it [losing a father and struggling to come to terms with it] could happen to anybody," she said.Mugovhani, who lauds the overall changing narrative of South African films, believes the global audience will have a better understanding of South Africans as a result."They will respect us, they will love us and get to know us outside of the struggle and know that we are people too," she said...