Nigerian, five others shine at UNESCO, Netflix film contest

A Nigerian, Korede Azeez, has emerged one of the winners in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Netflix groundbreaking short film competition tagged ‘African Folktales, Reimagined.’

Winners, which cut across Sub-Saharan Africa, are to receive training and mentorship from industry professionals.

They will also get $75,000 production grant to create short films to premiered on Netflix this year as an “Anthology of African folktales.”

Besides Azeez, five other winners announced yesterday, in a statement by Ayomide Olumide of Hill+Knowlton Strategies on behalf of the organisers, include Gcobisa Yako from South Africa; Loukman Ali (Uganda); Mohamed Echkouna (Mauritania); Voline Ogutu (Kenya) and Walter Mzengi of Tanzania.

Each victor gets $25,000 in addition to a production budget of $75,000 to create short films through a local production company and under the guidance of Netflix-appointed supervising producer and industry mentors from across the continent.

The contest, launched by Netflix and UNESCO in October 2021, is aimed at promoting diverse local stories and bringing them to the world, via “African Folktales.”

In his congratulatory message, Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay said: “The fact that their films will be shown to a global audience is part of our commitment to promoting cultural diversity around the world.”

Netflix Director of Content in Africa, Ben Amadasun noted: “It’s been a truly inspiring journey for us to experience the level of creativity from our candidates.”