Three graduates from the MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) between October 2018 to September 2019 have been selected by the New York Film Academy (NYFA) to attend an eight-week filming workshop at the United States Institution of Learning.
Mainala Silondwa of Zambia, Gilbert Bassey of Nigeria and Hillary Lanogwa of Kenya who were top of their classes at the MTF Academies for southern, west and east Africa qualified for full-tuition awards for the course. Mainala is a film director, while Hillary is a cinematographer and Gilbert a producer, director and editor.
“It is exciting that international courses of study are being made available to successful students from the MTF Academies initiative, created by MultiChoice Africa to give aspiring emerging film and TV professionals a break into the industry,” said Liz Dziva, publicity and public relations manager of MultiChoice Zimbabwe.
“This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity expands on MTF’s mission to empower emerging filmmakers through training, skills and creative development.”
Three MTF Academies were set up in 2018, in Lusaka for southern Africa, in Nairobi for East Africa and in Lagos for West Africa, and the second year of training is well underway at each of these. Two Zimbabweans were among the class of 2018-19, while another two are in the current year of training.
The 12-month training programme is designed to train the next generation of African film and TV creatives in partnership with stakeholders across the continent and globe, and one such international partner is the New York Film Academy.
“Through strategic partnerships with widely acclaimed institutions such as the New York Film Academy, Africa’s creative industries are enriched through skills sharing and exposure to global best practice. We’re excited for our three graduates and we hope that this opportunity will further empower them as they prepare to tell African stories to a global audience,” said Dziva.
The NYFA’s eight-week filmmaking workshop is designed for creatives who wish to study the craft of filmmaking in an intensive environment, and challenges students to produce five films over a period of two months.
