Ngoni Dapira
MULTICHOICE Talent Factory (MTF) has opened entries for the 2019 academy for aspiring film and television professionals from across the continent that want to sharpen their skills through its academy.

This will be the academy’s second year running since its inception last year. The entry call which opened on Tuesday will be open till 14 June. The pan-African initiative will again be searching for 60 wannabe film and TV creatives from Africa to be part of the class of 2019.

Liz Dziva

MultiChoice Zimbabwe publicity and public relations manager Liz Dziva in a press release said three MTF academies were established in 2018 and the first course students at all three are at present half-way through the first year of operation, studying all aspects of television production and working on practical assignments designed to sharpen their skills in this field.

“Year two will start in October, once the first-years have graduated, and a call is being made to all aspiring filmmakers to place their names for consideration for places in the academies set up in Lusaka, for Southern Africa, in Nairobi for East Africa, and in Lagos for West Africa. For Zimbabwe, successful applicants will therefore be placed in the Lusaka, where they will follow two current Zimbabwean students on their first year course,” she said.
From the requisite 60 successful applicants, the three academies will each have 20 students. The Lusaka academy is headed by the highly respected Zambian producer Berry Lwando that has over 28 years of experience in the broadcasting and communications industry.

Berry Lwando

“Launched in May 2018 as part of MultiChoice Africa’s extensive corporate shared value initiative aimed at igniting Africa’s creative industry through TV and filmmaking, the MTF Academy programme seeks to harness the talents of emerging filmmakers from 13 African countries, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Angola and Mozambique,” said Dziva.
“The applicants need either some industry experience or a relevant post-school qualification in filmmaking to apply for this exciting opportunity to hone their television and film production skills under the guidance and mentorship of industry experts.”

As part of the programme, young filmmakers are provided with training and hands-on experience in the film industry, with a focus on storytelling, production, audio and directing, as well as other key areas. The academies also provide students with an opportunity to learn directly from well-known leading industry experts, work on live sets of local TV productions and create original content that will be aired on various local M-Net channels across the MultiChoice platform.

Dziva said the MTF academies have to date exposed the class of 2018 to real-life industry immersions that includes the East Africa hub students working on productions such as the music reality show Coke Studio, Pambio, Turn-Up and the popular Swahili soap Selina. In West Africa the students cut their teeth on the thrilling series Battleground, The Johnsons, Tinsel and sitcom Flatmates, while the Southern African class worked on the reality show Date My Family, the Top ZED music show and the drama series Chintelelwe. The students also had an opportunity to gain hands-on experience on SuperSport shows and pitch their final-semester film projects to MultiChoice channel executives.

Dziva said the MTF initiative would also be introducing a MultiChoice Talent Factory Masterclass series, aimed at offering industry professionals exclusive access to practical, expert-led industry skills workshops in various countries. Earlier this year, the initiative rolled out the MTF Portal, www.multichoicetalentfactory.com, an interactive online destination that brings talent and opportunities together under one platform for Africa’s creative talent to connect and network with each other. She said would-be applicants for the MTF Academy should visit www.multichoicetalentfactory.com and follow the advised steps to enter, bearing in mind the deadline of June 14.

“People can join the MTF social media conversation on the hashtag #MultichoiceTalentFactory and follow or join Instagram: @multichoicetalentfactory; Twitter: @MCTalentFactory or Facebook: @multichoiceafricatalentfactory,” said Dziva.