MultiChoice academy sees first graduates
The MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) film academy, which launched in Nigeria, Zambia and Kenya last May, has held its first graduation ceremony, honouring 20 students from its East Africa hub in Kenya.
As well as receiving certificates from the Kenyatta University accredited training programme, the students have various landed placements and internships at institutions such as the New York Film Academy College of Visual & Performing Arts (NYFA) in the US.
Other students’ next moves include a Bollywood production internship with Nihilent in India; a Nollywood production scriptwriting internship on an Africa Magic series produced in Lagos; training for an infinite AVID media composer licence; and working towards an AVID Pro Tools licence with Jasco Broadcast Solutions.
“Those who made the cut have certainly proved their potential, and all the graduates’ hard work during the programme has led to this moment,” said Njoko Muhoho, MTF East Africa director.
“It was truly a privilege to witness as the students worked diligently and demonstrated exactly how important a programme such as the MTF academy is for the preservation of Africa’s creative film and TV industry. I couldn’t have been prouder of the students for the work they have so far put in, and for what lies ahead of them.”
Maharage Chande, MultiChoice director for the Northern region, added: “We’ve encountered some challenges as we travelled our way along this journey, but with the remarkable support of our stakeholders, partners and supporters, we soldiered on and have emerged stronger for the creative industry as a whole.”
Cheryl Uys-Allie, MTF director, said: “From the outset, we at MultiChoice believed that working in partnership with creative organisations across the continent and beyond would contribute towards making this initiative a success for the students and broader creative industry.
“We truly thank the partners who have come on board to contribute towards equipping our emerging creatives with the technical skills they need to expertly navigate our industry. As the old African proverb says, ‘If you want to run fast, go alone. If you want to run far, go together.’ It’s our hope that we will see more partners joining us to ignite Africa’s creative industry further.”
MTF has partnered with various institutions and organisations to ensure the success of the initiative and also with the world-renowned NYFA.
The MTF was launched to support and grow Africa’s creative film and TV industries by offering training opportunities to young emerging filmmakers. Successful applicants won a place on a 12-month fully funded training programme run by three regional academy directors, Muhoho (East Africa), Berry Lwando (Southern Africa) and Femi Odugbemi (West Africa), who each took on 20 students.
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