The award is one of the biggest accolades in Asia and the Showmax Original will pit itself against:

• The BAFTA-nominated All Creatures Great and Small S4
• La Storia, named 2024 Series of the Year by The Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists
• Aspergirl, winner of Best Actor for Carel Brown at last year’s Series Mania in the French competition

At the start of this week, the acclaimed Showmax Original was also released on CANAL+ in France, with two episodes every Monday. 

Reviews in France are as glowing as they were in South Africa. Le Figaro says Spinners “happily explores new fictional territories and allows you to discover an astonishing motorsport”; Diverto uses phrases like “absolutely captivating”, “breathtaking” and “both spectacular and full of suspense”; Allociné calls it “a gripping thriller… somewhere between Fast and Furious and Gomorra with a little hint of Moonlight”; Le Journal DuManche says, “If we put the film City of God, the Fast and Furious franchise and the Gomorrah series in a shaker… the final cocktail could look like this production!”; and Télé-Loisirs says, “Forget Fast and Furious, the Spinners series has a lot more under the hood than the saga with Vin Diesel and it will make you buzz with pleasure!”

The first African series ever selected for CanneSeries, Spinners follows Ethan (breakout star Cantona James), a 17-year-old driver working for a local gang. Needing to support his younger brother but increasingly disgusted with gang life, Ethan discovers a possible way out via spinning, an extreme motorsport where he can put his driving skills to better use. With a gang war looming, can he turn his life around fast enough? 

With nothing like it we’ve ever seen and set to make huge waves not only locally but internationally thanks to a concept / activity / sport (spinning cars) unique to Mzansi, Spinners cleverly shines a light on a way of life that is familiar to most of us residing here but perhaps also unfamiliar to some and probably even more so to international audiences who will be exposed to as a byproduct of the fact that it’s the first ever African series selected in competition at Canneseries.

From Showmax and CANAL+, Spinners follows Ethan, a 17-year-old driver working for a local gang. Needing to support his younger brother but increasingly disgusted with gang life, Ethan discovers a possible way out via spinning, an extreme motorsport where he can put his driving skills to better use.

It will officially premiere across Sub-Saharan Africa on Showmax on 8 November 2023, with new episodes on Wednesdays for the rest of the year, and on CANAL+ in Africa on 13 November 2023. STUDIOCANAL is handling international sales.

Spinners is driven by great story brought to life in a realistic manner by A+ grade level of acting led by Arendsvlei’s Cantona James and Chelsea Thomas. They’re joined by Dillon Windvogel (Blood & Water) and Elton Landrew (Recipes for Love & Murder), South African Film and Television Award (SAFTA) winners Brendon Daniels (Zulu, Skemerdans, Five Fingers for Marseille) and Dann Jaques Mouton (Arendsvlei, Noem My Skollie), SAFTA nominee David Isaacs (co-creator of Joe Barber) and rising star Katlego Lebogang (Wounds).

If you’ve never left your jaw on the floor watching spinning, Cantona explains what you’ve been missing. “Spinning is making art with your car,” he says. “Going in a donut, making an eight, people hanging outside a car while it’s spinning, standing on top of a car… it’s just thrilling.” 

Spinners is undoubtedly one of the few local series that is the gold standard and perfectly sets the tone for others to follow as an example of how to tell our unique stories with no notion of trying too hard or attempting to replicate what’s already been done. This type of high-quality original local content feels us with immense pride, a firm nod to you Showmax… may it long continue.