South Africa has selected Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar’s “Variations on a Theme” (“Variasies op ’n Tema”) as its submission for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards.
The 65-minute Afrikaans-language drama follows Hettie, an elderly goat herder living near Kharkams in South Africa’s Northern Cape province, who becomes caught in a scam promising compensation connected to her father’s service in the Second World War.
Hettie Farmer leads the cast.
Jacobs and Delmar wrote and directed the film, with Annemarie du Plessis producing in association with Kraal Stories, Meria Productions and Dutch production company Interakt. The film is a South Africa, Netherlands and Qatar production.
“Variations on a Theme” had its world premiere in the Tiger Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in Rotterdam, in early 2026, where it won the Tiger Award, the festival’s principal competition prize for early-career feature filmmakers.
The South African selection committee screened eligible films in Cape Town and Johannesburg from 1–4 September and completed its deliberations on 9 September, with South African audit firm SNG Grant Thornton overseeing the process.