By Juliet Gillies
- The Netflix-Unesco Folktales re-imagined short film competition celebrates African folklore
- This marks the first time up-and-coming filmmakers across sub-Saharan Africa are being showcased
- The competition marks a strong drive by Netflix to penetrate the African Video-On-Demand market in partnership with Unesco
Hot on the heels of Disney+ announcing its six country launches in Africa this year, UNESCO and Netflix have just announced the six winners of its ‘Netflix-Unesco Folktales Reimagined Short Film Competition’ that was launched in October 2021. There is one winner from each of the following countries: Mauritania, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.
This is the first time the competition has been run to find up-and-coming filmmakers in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Netflix-Unesco Folktales Reimagined Short Film Competition provides more evidence of the international media giants – including subscription video-on-demand (VOD) providers – looking to penetrate African markets for customer growth, as internet connectivity in Africa escalates and GDP per capita climbs, which provides these providers with access to more people in Africa.
The six winners of the competition and the related project details are:
Winner Country Language Project
Mohamed Echkouna Mauritania Hassaniya Arabic; French The Enmity Djinn
Walter Mzengi Tanzania KiSwahili; ciGogo Katope
Korede Azeez Nigeria Hausa; Fulfulde (Fula) Adieu Salut
Voline Ogutu Kenya English; KiSwahili; Luo Anyango and the Ogre
Gcobisa Yako South Africa Xhosa Uma Mlambo
Loukman Ali Uganda English; Runyankole Katera of the Punishment Island
Some key elements in the winners’ CVs are as follows:
- Mohamed is a graduate of South Africa’s African Leadership Academy, following graduation from Savannah College of Art and Design. His short film, ‘Trail of Hope’, won multiple awards and was screened “at over a dozen film festivals worldwide”.
- Walter is a graduate of the AFDA film school in South Africa. He has worked on award-winning
films such as ‘Mthunzi’ and ‘Heavens Reaches Down to Earth’. He directed ‘Gulf’ and ‘Timela’,
which have been screened “at festivals around the world”. - Korede worked on a number of films for BBC Media Action before co-founding Hive Film
Collective. She then worked on ‘Tip of the Edge’, ‘Play’ and ‘Mancoin’, and her first feature film is
due for release in 2022 (‘It Blooms in June’). - Voline has written for a number of local and international releases, including ’40 Sticks’, which
premiered on Netflix in 2020. She also worked on ‘The Witch from Chaka’, ‘JINN’ and ‘Mama K
Team 4’, which are all in post-production, and she writes for the Australian puppet show,
‘Professors’.
Gcobisa has an honours degree in Directing and Writing from AFDA. She works as a creative
researcher at The Rudeboy Collective production company.
Loukman is a screenwriter, editor, animator and film director who learnt his craft by watching
“How to …” videos on YouTube. His work is mainly directing TV commercials, but he is building his
craft by creating short films in his spare time.
The six winners each get US$250000 plus a production budget of US$750000 to “create short films
through a local production company and under the guidance of Netflix-appointed supervising producer and industry mentors from across the continent”. The films must present reimagined African folktales in the various Africa languages to showcase “Africa’s rich cultural heritage”. The six films will premiere on Netflix in late 2022 as part of its ‘An Anthology of African Folktales’ offering.
This is the first time the competition has been run, with funding from the Netflix Creative Equity Fund. It was designed to enable “new voices from underrepresented communities within entertainment to bring their perspectives to a global audience”. Netflix currently has 222 million members in 190 countries around the world, who watch VOD in various languages. UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that “promotes cultural heritage, creativity and cultural diversity”. It states that its “two main priorities” are gender and Africa.
