Release
Drum premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2004. It was the lead film in the festival's Spotlight on South Africa program. The Sundance Film Festival picked up the film, for its US premiere in January 2005, as did the Cannes Film Festival in May. On 21 June, Drum was screened at the Boston International Film Festival during its first session. The film opened the 2005 Munich Filmfest on 25 June.
For his work with Drum, Maseko received the top prize at FESPACO, the Golden Stallion of Yennenga, in addition to a cash prize of 10 million CFA francs (US$20,000) at its closing ceremony in March 2005. He was the first South African to do such. In addition, Drum is only the second English language film to have won the Golden Stallion at FESPACO, the first being Kwaw Ansah's Heritage Africa in 1989.
The film premiered in South Africa at the 26th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) on 17 July 2005 where it won the Best South African Film Award. It was released at 29 South African movie theaters on 22 July. Events to help promote the film included toyi-toyi dances in various South African market places, and the production crew holding a contest in which South African schoolchildren would have to research a lost community and the winners would get to meet the actors.
Outside film festivals, the first release in the United States was at the Olde Mistick Village theater in Filardi's hometown of Mystic, Connecticut, on 22 December 2006. Despite wide releases in Europe, Drum did not obtain one in the U.S, mostly due to a failure to find distributors. Instead, it went straight to DVD.
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