Press Release: ROIL Bulawayo Arts Awards 2020

Welcome to the Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards 2020 Press Conference. It’s been a trying few months as we have deliberated a thousand times and even muted cancelling the awards all together. We want to first of all thank you all for being patient with us and for keeping our arts alive.

Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards (RBAA), now in their fourth year, are multi-disciplinary arts awards that recognize and honour exceptional individuals and collaborative artistic efforts in the city of Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South. The awards also cater for those born in Bulawayo and practicing art around the world. The awards were curated to recognize good effort and talent amongst local artists and students. With the unfortunate emergence of the global pandemic, this year’s awards have to take a new shape but still be effective.

Further to our various deliberations on the format of the RoilBAA events this year, As we all find our way through the devastating consequences of the corona virus, RoilBAA is redoubling efforts to help, protect and sustain our creatives and their families and ensure that the needs of the most vulnerable creatives are prioritised in response and recovery efforts. It is to this effect that we launch the RoilBAA Conscious Citizenship Strategy, a strategy that can play a critical role in supporting the arts sector and help their efforts in creating work in these trying times. The spread and impact of COVID-19 is unprecedented. This public health emergency will likely result in a global economic crisis – both of which will hit the poorest and most marginalized communities the hardest. With this in mind we will postpone the main RoilBAA ceremony (planned for 29 August 2020) to November 28, 2020 and direct our efforts towards this strategic stimulus programme.

In partnership with our main Sponsor United refineries and running under the ROIL Banner (ROILBAA) with the possibility of other players joining in this drive , we will issue subsistence vouchers or stimulus food packages to our 77 previous winners plus 13 of our core RoilBAA team to make it 90 recipients. We will also identify a further 10 vulnerable artists who are not necessarily past award winners, for example, elderly artists to make the figure 100 recipients. The process will involve delivery of stimulus packages to the artists homes and places of work and will be documented for a delayed video programme to be aired both online and on TV. This will be supported by a mini online concert to feature a few artists abiding by Covid 19 safety regulations.

Roil BAA 2020 Awards Format

Timelines

Monday 10 August Press Launch of RoilBAA 2020 ( Sponsorship , Format, Dates and Calendar)

Wed 19 August to Thurs 27 August – RoilBAA Conscious Citizenship Programme

Friday 28 August Opening of Nominations & Online Concert

Friday 18 September Close of Nominations.

Friday 2 October Announcement of Nominations.

Friday 9 October Voting lines open

Friday 20 November Voting lines close

Friday 27 November Dress Rehearsal

Saturday 28 November RoilBAA 2020

The Awards List

As you may already know, the sector has been heavily affected by the COVID19 Epidemic hence some of the genres haven’t been very active. The Awards have been reduced from the 50 we called out for last year to 32 this year.

When the 28th Of August hits, these are the categories we will expect submissions and nominations for:

MUSIC AWARDS

1. Outstanding Kwaito / House / Gqom Artist / Act

2. Outstanding Hip/Hop Artist/Act

3. Outstanding Gospel Artist/Act

4. Outstanding Alternative (Maskandi/Jazz/World) Music Artist / Act

5. Outstanding Tshibilika/Rhumba Artist / Act

6. Outstanding Accapela / Imbube Group/Act

7. Outstanding Music Video

8. Outstanding Female Artist

9. Outstanding Male Artist

10. Song of the Year

DANCE AWARDS

11. Outstanding Dance Ensemble

12. Outstanding Female Dancer

13. Outstanding Male Dancer

THEATRE AWARDS

14. Outstanding Theatre Actress

15. Outstanding Theatre Actor

16. Outstanding Theatre Production

VISUAL ARTS AWARDS

17. Outstanding Visual Artwork

MEDIA AWARDS

18. Outstanding Online Media

19. Outstanding Arts Journalist Across Board

20. Outstanding Arts Photographer

FILM & TV AWARDS

21. Outstanding Television Production/Program

22. Outstanding Film / TV Actress

23. Outstanding Film / TV Actor

SPOKEN WORD AWARDS

24. Outstanding Comedian

25. Outstanding Poet

LITERARY WORKS AWARDS

26. Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction

FASHION AND LIFESTYLE AWARDS

27. Outstanding Female Model

28. Outstanding Male Model

29. Outstanding Fashion Designer/House

SPECIAL AWARDS

30. Outstanding Newcomer Across All Genres

31. Life Achievement Award

DJ AWARDS

32. Outstanding DJ

In Conclusion

At these unprecedented times of COVID 19 the awards and the arts in general cannot fully survive without the support and encouragement of sponsors. In return sponsors have the opportunity to become associated with the creation of unique and exciting work that gives pleasure and value to audiences and develop the skills and abilities of all the artists involved.

With this, we thank you again for coming along with us; Potential sponsors please get in touch. To the creatives aluta continua. #ArtistsLivesMatter