MultiChoice Unveils 3rd cohort of Talent Factory academic programme

MultiChoice Africa is excited to welcome the next generation of passionate young film creatives to the MTF Academy hubs in Nairobi, Lagos & Lusaka as part of the Class of 2022.

After a 6-week selection process across 13 African countries, 60 aspiring filmmakers representing East Africa, Southern Africa and West Africa will begin their 12-month training programme at the MTF Academies in October this year.

The final candidates were selected after a rigorous interview and adjudication process by film and television experts, as well as regional Academy Directors.

Now in its third year, the MultiChoice Talent Factory has honed the skills of 120 emerging filmmakers in 13 countries across the continent, who are now part of the growing MTF alumni network, taking African stories to the world.

At the onset of the pandemic, MTF looked for ways to ensure that our curriculum was still delivered with the expected impact. Critical to this was leveraging relationships with our strategic partners when identifying solutions for our students.

This led to even greater opportunities as our last cohort benefited from an intensive 3-week New York Film Academy (NYFA) online training course. Formulated in partnership with NYFA, this course is now part of the MTF curriculum where the new cohort will learn how to produce micro documentaries, public service announcements, television commercials and music videos.

This type of training broadens their skillset and allows them to be economically active in various sectors, not only the film industry. The success of any academic programme can be measured by the contribution made by alumni in the industry.

To find out how MTF academies are continuing to ignite Africa’s creative industries, MTF carried out an annual survey, and found that of those that participated in the survey from of the inaugural class of 2019, 92% are economically active in the industry.

According to CEO: General Entertainment & Connected Video Yolisa Phahle, this is exactly what the industry needs and why MTF was launched.

“As Africa’s most loved storyteller, our commitment is not only to tell authentic African stories but to also invest in them, that is why some of our alumni are working on M-Net and Showmax productions. Currently we have alumni in 7 countries working on M-Net and Showmax productions and the list keeps growing. They are helping us to realise the vision of taking African stories to the world with a “hyperlocal” approach, producing relevant content within the respective regions of our continent, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all strategy,” says Phahle. The academy’s curriculum was tailored alongside MultiChoice Africa partner institutions Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos, Kenyatta University in Nairobi, and the University of Zambia in Lusaka, which will respectively confer the course qualification upon completion of the academy programme. In addition, The Henley Business School offers an orientation intervention to the students at the beginning and end of the 12-month programme as well workshops on Business for Creatives focussing on entrepreneurship.