Six African filmmakers will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop their fiction film story ideas and work-in-progress scripts in a three-month residency that includes attending film industry programmes in three countries in the 2022 edition of the Realness African Screenwriters’ Residency.
The residency programme in its seventh year will take place from August 3 to November 13, 2022, and is open to any African on the continent or living in the Diaspora.
This year, the Realness Institute has partnered with the Locarno Filmmakers’ Academy (Switzerland) so that these filmmakers can attend the Locarno Film Festival, and the Academy’s creative incubation programme ‘BaseCamp’. In addition, one of the selected six will also attend the Academy, the festival’s industry development programme.
Following this, the cohort will spend six weeks at the Nirox and Farmhouse 58 in The Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, where they will be mentored by story consultants, Selina Ukwuoma and Mmabatho Kau; and creative producer, Urucu Media, Cait Pansegrouw. The executive director of Realness Institute, Elias Ribeiro, will accompany the group to the Locarno Film Festival; while the director of Development and Partnerships at the Realness Institute, Mehret Mandefro, will accompany the cohort to the Africa International Film Festival.