Feature films by Kenyan filmmakers Wanuri Kahiu and Judy Kibinge by is among 23 feature films and 12 Tv series that have been shortlisted by Triggerfish Animation Studios for the inaugural Triggerfish Story Lab. The shortlisted films and TV series’were picked from a total of 1,378 entries from storytellers and filmmakers from 30 countries across Africa and its diaspora.
The shortlist includes top African creatives like Nnedi Okorafor, a World Fantasy Award winning novelist; Charlie Human, whose debut novel Apocalypse Now Now is currently being adapted by District 9’s Terri Tanchel; award-winning picture book author Alex Latimer; and multi-award-winning directors Donovan Marsh, Hanneke Schutte and Jenna Bass.
The shortlisted entries will attend workshops in Cape Town in November with leading Hollywood script consultant Pilar Alessandra, author of The Coffee Break Screenwriter, and Orion Ross, Vice President of Content – Animation, Digital and Acquisitions Disney Channels EMEA. They will then make their final pitches to an expert panel that includes Peter Lord, the British director of international blockbusters like Chicken Run and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists; Hollywood writers Kiel Murray (Cars) and Jonathan Roberts (The Lion King); and a panel of development executives from both the London and Los Angeles offices of The Walt Disney Company, as well as South African storyteller Gcina Mhlope, comedian David Kau, screenwriter Paul Ian Johnson, and Triggerfish’s development team of Anthony Silverston, Wayne Thornley and Raffaella Delle Donne.
In December 2015, Triggerfish will announce the final Story Lab participants, who will start the new year with a two week immersion trip, including mentoring from key studio and television executives, at Disney’s headquarters in Burbank, California.
The shortlisted feature film entries
- The Big Wild (Ian Pugh)
- Born Flea (Andrew Phillips)
- Bru and Boegie (Mike Scott)
- The Camel Racer (Wanuri Kahui and Nnedi Okorafor)
- The Crash (Julia Smuts Louw)
- Dropped (Ian Tucker)
- Elliot’s Journey (Judy Kibinge)
- Fish Out of Water (Matthys Boshoff and Carina Stander)
- The Legend of the Rain Queen (Hanneke Schutte)
- The Life Factory (Howard James Fyvie)
- Lights (Kay Carmichael)
- The Little Five (Alex Latimer)
- The Loneliest Satellite (Charlie Human)
- Make Believe Maya (Nimrod Geva)
- The Makers (Sheldon Bengston)
- Molly and the Quarks (Donovan Marsh)
- Mumbo Jumbo Bambinos (Mbuso Thulani Shiburi)
- Paris in Africa (Yolanda Makalaza)
- Paradox City (Greig Cameron)
- True Colours (Bernard Bruwer)
- The Wild Waste (Naseem Hoosen)
- Witches Way (Jenna Bass and Chinelo Unwualo)
- Zahrah the Windseeker (Wanuri Kahui and Nnedi Okorafor)
The shortlisted TV series
- Chicken Core (Shina Ajulo)
- Folklore (Andile Ngcizela)
- Gullivan’s Loft (Jenny Verwoerd and Stephen van Wyk)
- Herbert Smelly Pants (Denzil Lewis)
- KC’s Super 4 (Malenga Mulendema)
- Matchbox Monsters (Sue-Mari L. Sauer)
- Ninja Princess (Marc Dey)
- Onion Boy (Sarah Scrimgeour)
- Sam and Sbu (Lori Reardon and John Reardon)
- Sophie the Giantslayer (Kay Carmichael)
- Uncanny Valley (Nicholas Rix and Moray Rhoda)
- Wormholes (Lucy Heavens)