3 Kenyans shortlisted for Netflix’s African Folk Tales Reimagined competition

The African Folktales, Reimagined competition was launched in October last year.

Netflix and UNESCO have announced the 20 shortlisted candidates who will go forward in the exciting short film competition ‘African Folktales, Reimagined’. What’s more, the quality of submissions received resulted in one extra candidate being added to the list, making it 21 filmmakers on the shortlist. 

The candidates were selected following a rigorous evaluation process by a wide-range of industry professionals from across the continent, including Kenyan Film Director Tosh Gitonga. Over 2080 applications were assessed from across the continent in multiple languages.The shortlist contains a dynamic group of African creatives from across 13 countries in the region. They include,

Nosa Igbinedion (Nigeria)

Ebot Tanyi (Cameroon)

Loukman Ali (Uganda)

Tongryang Pantu (Nigeria)

Walt Mzengi (Tanzania)

Venance Soro (Côte d’Ivoire)

Noni Ireri (Kenya)

Volana Razafimanantsoa (Madagascar)

Mohamed Echkouna (Mauritania)

Nader Fakhry (Côte d’Ivoire)

Anne Catherine Tchokonté (Cameroon)

Mphonyana Mokokwe (Botswana)

Anita Abada (Nigeria)

Samuel Kanyama (Zambia)

Machérie Ekwa-Bahango (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Oprah Oyugi (Kenya)

Ndiyathemba Modibedi (South Africa)

Gcobisa Yako (South Africa

Akorede Azeez (Nigeria)

Katya Aragão (São Tomé and Príncipe) and

Voline Ogutu (Kenya).

The 21 emerging filmmakers will go on to the next phase of the competition where they will be required to pitch their stories to a judging panel. The panel will select the final six filmmakers who will receive a production grant of US$75,000 (through a local production company) to develop, shoot and post-produce their films under the guidance of Netflix and industry mentors to ensure everyone involved in the production is fairly compensated. Each of the 6 winners will also receive $25,000.

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