An African screenwriters residency incubator has partnered with Netflix to create a content development lab for writers.
Screenwriters from South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria can apply to be a part of the Episodic Content Development Lab through the website of the Realness Institute, a non-profit pan-African initiative aimed at nurturing and developing future generations of filmmakers and screenwriters.
Six writers with experience in television or film and working in any genre, fiction or non-fiction, and any language will be selected to work on projects to be developed and commissioned by streaming platform and production company Netflix. Each writer will receive US$2 000 per month for the three-month, full-time programme between June and September 2021. Applications close on 31 January 2021.
The endeavour is the latest writers’ residency programme to be launched by the Realness Institute, which began in 2015.
According to Mehret Mandefro, Ethiopian broadcaster and Realness Institute director of development and partnerships, the creation of the Episodic Content Development Lab is a response to the changing broadcast ecosystem, which ‘has a very important role to play in building a thriving media ecosystem in local markets and providing episodic creators with distribution opportunities’.
