Ferdinand Ekechukwu
A frica has a rich storytelling heritage and a wealth of folktales that have been passed down for generations. When you marry these very indigenous continental stories with Africa’s emerging talent, there is no limit to fresh new stories to connect people with African cultures and bring the world much closer. On this premise, Global streaming platform, Netflix in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) seek to discover and empower new voices in the African filmmaking firmament.
This partnership, through a newly launched short-film competition for the emerging filmmakers across sub-Saharan Africa, themed, ‘African Folktales, Reimagined’, “will offer six winners resources to develop their talents on a global scale. Winners will be trained and mentored by industry professionals and provided with a US$75,000 production budget, through a local production company, to create short films that will premiere on Netflix in 2022 as an “Anthology of African folktales”, Netflix and UNESCO said in a statement.
The statement said further: “We want to find the bravest, wittiest, and most surprising retellings of some of Africa’s most-loved folktales and share them with entertainment fans around the world in over 190 countries. The competition, which will be administered by Dalberg, will open on 14 October 2021 until 14 November 2021.”
In addition, each of the 6 winners will also receive $25,000. The statement disclosed that UNESCO had approached Netflix as part of the continent’s first comprehensive mapping of the film and audiovisual industries. “What we’re trying to achieve with Netflix… is how we can engage those young film-makers in telling stories of African folk and in passing on, through the generations, the culture and the traditions that are in place in Africa. To do this, partnering with a platform on the global scale of Netflix was vital to ensure visibility.”
UNESCO and Netflix both strongly believe in the importance of promoting diverse local stories, and bringing them to the world. They recognize that many emerging filmmakers struggle with finding the right resources and visibility to enable them to fully unleash their talents and develop their creative careers. This competition aims to address these issues and enable African storytellers to take a first step towards showcasing their content to a global audience. This competition puts a global spotlight on the emerging, homegrown talents of Africa while honouring the storytelling tradition of the continent.
By infusing new energy into folktales, these young filmmakers enable stories to transcend time, space and culture – from their communities, through a digital platform, into the hearts of audiences around the world.
This partnership will help create sustainable employment and encourage economic growth and it will therefore contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, a series of targets established by the United Nations which aims to end global poverty in all its forms by the end of this decade.
This film competition will also help reduce inequalities by facilitating access to global markets and by guaranteeing dignified working conditions. All of these are key goals within the 2030 Agenda.
On how to apply, for the first round, applicants will be required to submit a synopsis of their concept (no more than 500 words) as well as links to a recent CV and a portfolio/evidence of any past audiovisual work they have produced. Applications can be submitted via http://www.netflix-growcreative.com/unesco from October 14th at 16:00 CET and will close on November 14th, 2021 at 13:59 PM CET. The competition is open to prospective individuals seeking to venture into feature film development and production.
