Three MultiChoice Talent Factory Alumni travel to USA for prestigious New York Film Academy Scholarship

THREE graduates of the first year of the MultiChoice Talent Factory have been selected by the New York Film Academy to attend an eight-week filming workshop at the prestigious US institution of learning.

Lanogwa directing his 1st class project with classmates from Brazil Paraguay

Mainala Silondwa of Zambia, Gilbert Bassey of Nigeria and Hillary Lanogwa of Kenya were top of their classes at the MTF Academies for southern, west and east Africa and qualified for full-tuition awards for the course. Mainala is a film director, while Hillary is a cinematographer and a producer, director and editor. Each was in the first year of study at the MTF Academies, which ran from October 2018 to September 2019.

“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 under way 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 Ms Dziva.

Hillary and Mainala during the editing processing

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. During the last four weeks of the programme, each student writes, directs, and edits a final film of up to ten minutes. These films will be showcased at a screening in New York, and students who successfully complete the workshop receive a NYFA certificate and a digital master copy of all their projects

A critical platform for film and TV creatives, the New York Film Academy has lent support to African content creators by hosting workshops across the continent and names African film and TV stars such as Banky Wellington, Kemi Adesoye and Natasha Thahane among its star-studded list of African success stories. Continuing its efforts to fortify film development internationally, as well as its ongoing partnership with MultiChoice Africa, the New York Film Academy will now add the three rising MTF graduates to their own alumni network.