Zimbabwean students Mollen Ruvimbo Chisveto and Sandelo Msalili Commence the MultiChoice Talent Factory Southern Africa Academy Training in Lusaka.
Zimbabwean students, Mollen Ruvimbo Chisveto from Harare and Sandelo Msalili from Bulawayo are among the current group of twenty that commenced the MultiChoice Talent Factory Southern Africa Academy training in Lusaka on Monday February 12 2024.
MultiChoice Zimbabwe head corporate affairs and public relations Charity Njanji said the MTF Southern Africa Academy is one of three on the continent. The other two are in Lagos for West Africa and Nairobi for East Africa with twenty students in each academy.
“At the Lusaka Academy, as at the others, the students will spend 12 months gaining skills in screenwriting, editing, producing and directing, through study and practical experience on TV and film productions. The fully-funded curriculum includes workshops, lectures, masterclasses and assignments.” she said.
MTF students learn under the tutelage of experienced industry professionals from across the globe and in the final stages of the course they develop feature films for broadcast on various DStv channels and on DStv’s Showmax.
Mrs Njanji said that in Southern Africa the MTF Academy curriculum was created with MultiChoice Africa’s partner institution, the University of Zambia, which confers the course qualifications on completion of the academy program.
“This year’s students were chosen after a rigorous six-week selection process of interviews and adjudication by film and television experts, as well as regional academy directors,” she said.
In the MTF Southern Africa Academy 2024 course, 55% of students in this year’s intake are male and 45% are female, hailing from Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana, Angola and Zimbabwe.
Since its establishment in 2018, the Africa-wide MTF Academy program has produced more than 300 qualified young filmmakers who are helping to take African stories to the world.
The training that the MTF Academy provides is geared to broaden the skillsets of aspirant filmmakers and to empower them to work in various creative disciplines. An MTF survey has found that 92% of MTF Academy graduates go on to work in the creative sector, a thoroughly satisfying figure.
“Once they leave our Academy, many MTF graduates go on to work on MultiChoice productions or with other broadcasters in the region,” said Mrs Njanji.
“Other graduates start businesses and become our partners and suppliers in the industry, so MTF is about developing the skills to support a vibrant, collaborative industry environment.”
Last year’s MTF Southern African Academy created a talented pool of passionate and skilled young creatives, many of whom joined local productions with the Zambia National Film Commission, as well as pan-African film and televisions productions including Salem, Tempted, Engaito, Mvamizi, Mum vs Wife, Makofi and County 49.
MTF Southern Africa classes support the MultiChoice vision of producing quality local content, according to Mrs Njanji.
“We’ve seen how audiences across Africa react to content made by other Africans and we look forward to seeing the work produced by this year’s group of MTF students.”
Before their departure Mollen and Sandelo where taken on a tour of the MultiChoice Zimbabwe offices where they had a chat with staff from different departments.
