Jaco Bouwer

Jaco was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artists award for Drama in 2008 and has won various other awards over the years including winning best director three years in a row at South Africa’s premier theatre awards, the Fleur du Cap. His debut feature film Gaia, an eco-horror (winner of the ZEISS Cinematography Award at SXSW in 2021), sold to multiple territories by XYZ Films including the US (Bleecker Street) and the UK (Altitude) and formed part of Hulu’s Huluween event 2022. Jaco’s low budget US feature for producer Sunil Perkash (Dis/Enchanted) called Orion stars Andrew McCarthy and is an unsettling reflection on the nature of language and a meditation on mistrust. The scifi is out to festivals now. Before this Jaco adapted and directed the claustrophobic and haunting two-hander Breathing In – an adaptation of the play by renowned playwright Reza de Wet for producer Jorrie van der Walt and Kaapland Films. Jaco’s work combines the personal and the political with introspective enquiry and a radical formalism which seeks to critique controversial subjects without any attempt to solve the issues they raise. He directed all 8 episodes of Spinners for Joachim Landau / Federation MEAC and Canal+/Showmax and the show is the first African series to showcase at CanneSeries and it won Best Series at the inaugural Dakar Series event in 2023. The show premiered on Showmax in November 2023, Jaco is currently shooting season 2. Niggies (Cousins), a true crime limited series for kykNET on which Jaco directed all 9 eps just finished its run on the channel breaking every record.