Deadline for applications to the Realness African Screenwriters’ Residency extended to 14 March 2022

Due to an overwhelming response, the Realness Institute has announced an extension for submissions for the 7th Realness African Screenwriters’ Residency. Applicants will now have until 14 March 2022 to apply.

The Screenwriters’ Residency, which is aimed at developing African stories created by Africans for a global film market, will afford six screenwriters the opportunity to develop their fiction film story ideas and work-in-progress scripts. The Residency, therefore, proudly empowers African screenwriters to craft and develop their authentic stories.

This year’s exciting news is that Realness Institute has partnered with the Locarno Filmmakers Academy (Switzerland) and the Africa International Film Festival (Nigeria), which sees the programme, originally 6 weeks, extended to 12 weeks and is set to take place from 3 August to 13 November. The Residency is open to African nationals and the Diaspora.

The six selected screenwriters will attend the Locarno International Film Festival, and the Academy’s creative incubation programme “Basecamp”. Elias Ribeiro, Executive Director of the Realness Institute, will accompany the group for this leg of the programme.

In addition, one of the selected screenwriters will also attend the 2023 edition of the Locarno Filmmakers Academy, the festival’s industry development programme. This year, Palesa Shongwe, a Screenwriters’ Residency alumnus from the last cohort, will attend the Locarno Filmmakers Academy.

Following this, the cohort will spend 6 weeks at the tranquil and nurturing Nirox and Farmhouse 58 in The Cradle of Humankind, in Gauteng South Africa, where they will be mentored by Story Consultants Selina Ukwuoma and Mmabatho Kau and Creative Producer Cait Pansegrouw.

Thereafter screenwriters will receive the coveted opportunity to attend the African International Film Festival to take meetings and present their project to an audience of potential stakeholders. The Realness team will develop and present a two-day programme, dedicated to development, during AFRIFF’s Industry event. Mehret Mandefro, Director of Development and Partnership at the Realness Institute, will accompany the group to AFRIFF.

Finally, the most promising projects will be awarded participation in the prestigious La Fabrique Cinéma de l’Institut Français in Cannes, receive an EAVE Producers’ Workshop partial Scholarship, and an invitation to TorinoFilmLab Meetings Event and Locarno Filmmakers Academy.

Over the years, the programme and mentors have worked with over 30 film projects with 2 films produced as a result. These films, A Fool God by Hiwot Adamasu (Ethiopia) and This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (Lesotho) both have an international sales agent and have been screened at major international festivals around the world, with “Resurrection” having notched 33 prestigious awards. It was Lesotho’s first-ever submission for the Academy Awards in 2021.

Award-winning alumnus Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese says about the programme: “I was fortunate to be incubated at the Residency early on in my development process. There I became part of a cinematic family who are rooted in Africa and I was able to make sense of all these ideas and feelings that I was giving birth to. As someone who has mostly had to learn and create in isolation, Realness provided a loving and nurturing home to me and my musings.”

“We are really excited to be firing up the creative flames of African story-tellers for this 2022 edition,” says script consultant Selina Ukwuoma. “Writers are rarely afforded the opportunity to have the time and space, with the safe-guard of some income, to generate their ideas, and this programme has proved over the years, to truly enable creative ideas to flourish and grow. While not every script will come to full fruition, this programme provides a superb space to the development of screenwriters, to hone skills and techniques.”

The full application criteria which is open to anyone who has a valid African passport, as well as how to apply can be found on the Realness Institute’s website: https://www.realness.institute/realness-residency

The highly regarded programme is presented in partnership with:

Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), Area51 Pictures, Atlas Ateliers - Festival International du Film de Marrakech, Berlinale Talents, Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC), Cocoon Productions, European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs, Farmhouse 58, , International Emerging Filmmakers Talent Association (IEFTA), International Film Festival Rotterdam Pro (IFFR Pro), Institute Français’ La Fabrique des, Cinémas du Monde, Locarno Filmmakers’ Academy, Nirox Foundation, TorinoFilmLab, Urucu Media.

The extended deadline for submissions is 14 March 2022 at 17:00 Central African time.

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