The PTWC feature documentary, ‘Out of Mined’, which premiered to a packed house in Cape Town last week, has won a Cannes Film Award, to provide a potentially game-changing boost to international recognition about mining’s impact on the West Coast.
Announced on Saturday 27 June, the award was presented in the Work in Progress category at the Awards, which recognises outstanding films that are in development.
The award comes after the world premiere last week of the film, which was shown to almost 400 people at the Labia Theatre in Cape Town on Wednesday 24 June, where the film screened across all four cinemas. The documentary traces a century of diamond and heavy mineral mining along 450 km of coastline, giving voice to fishers, indigenous communities, scientists and legal experts, and lays the foundation for a future comprising sustainable, nature-based industries.
Mike Schlebach, managing director of Protect the West Coast (PTWC), who partnered with Director Arthur Neumeier and his team from Eyeforce on the film’s production, said: “For a story about South Africa’s West Coast to receive recognition on an international stage is incredibly encouraging. We hope this award helps amplify the voices of the communities featured in the film and sparks an even broader conversation about the future of our coastline.”
Neumeier, who made nine trips to the West Coast and the Richtersveld with a team comprising a camera man, photographer, sound person and local fixer, said the award honoured the communities at the heart of the story.
“This award is an honour, but more importantly, it’s recognition for the people who entrusted us with telling their story. We set out to make an honest film about a place of extraordinary beauty and complexity, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see that resonate with an international audience,” he said, adding that the 63 minute film came from more than 20 terabytes of footage shot during their trips up the West Coast as far as the Richtersveld.
The film’s world premiere at the Labia was sold out, as was an extra screening of the film. The film immerses audiences in the vast vistas of the West Coast, but this comes with an urgent call to protect this fragile beauty and biodiversity from the destruction wrought by a legacy of heavy mineral and diamond mining, and a deluge of applications for more mining.
In 2026 alone, more than 60 new mining applications were submitted in the Western and Northern Cape, while only about 10% of the West Coast coastline is currently protected, according to ‘The Tipping Point’ Special Report published by PTWC.
Schlebach said that the film laid the path to tangible change on the West Coast. He said that cinema and art were powerful tools to not only show the legacy damage of mining, but the breathtaking beauty of the region – a poignant double edged appeal to our responsibilities as citizens of South Africa.
“At this intersection between the damage and the rich biodiversity lies a message of hope, or redemption, and it’s so gratifying to see such a positive response to the film. Now we can map on our plan of action, and begin putting in place several rehabilitation and community projects we are working on,” he added.
One of six panellists that joined for the Q&A after the film, community activist Wendy Pekeur spoke about practical ways to combat the intersectional exploitation of women and youth within South Africa’s mining sector. As a feminist, Pekeur, the founder of the Ubuntu Rural Women and Youth Movement, spearheads grassroots campaigns to empower indigenous women.
‘Out of Mined’ will now begin its international film festival run, with screenings scheduled at the Berlin Indie Film Festival, the Changing Tide Ocean Film Festival and the Green Montenegro International Film Festival.
A second public screening takes place at the Labia Theatre on Wednesday 8 July at 18:15.
Get tickets to the second extra screening of ‘Out of Mined’ here
https://www.quicket.co.za/events/383572-out-of-mined-second-extra-screening
Download ‘The Tipping Point’ Special Report here
https://protectthewestcoast.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/PTWC_Special-Report_2026_Digital_FA.pdf
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