British Council Unveils Lagos filmlab Project

Yinka Olatunbosun

Mambila Hall was full of arts and culture journalists on the invitation of the international cultural organisation, British Council last Thursday when an open call to aspiring filmmakers, directors and writers was made. Called Lagos filmLab, the project is created towards making low-budget, world class films that tell African stories. Funded by the British Council and the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, with Creative England and Biola Alabi Media as delivery partners, the project will be a talent hunt that selects budding talents within Lagos to make three high-quality feature films. The Head of Programmes, British Council, Mrs. Ojomo Ochai explained that the project was designed to address issues facing the film industry such as financing, infrastructure and capacity building to improve the quality of output and revenue. “This project will discover and support 12 teams of emerging film talent in August and September 2019 through an intensive residential programme facilitated by experienced film executives and professional writers. “Filmmaking teams will be guided through the development and production phases of filmmaking with dedicated support. Participants will be educated on topics such as script development, production, sales, marketing and distribution as well as financing,’’ she said. In the end, 12 teams of aspiring filmmakers will go through a shortlisting process and training workshops using a series of seminars and open sessions with industry experts from the UK and Nigeria. The seminar topics will also address the film industry challenges including copyright infringements and piracy, distribution and taxation. The call is open till September 18.

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