Lucy Mugure emerged as one of the winners at the recently concluded NAICCON Animation du Monde pitching competition. Nairobi Comic Convention (Naiccon) is East Africa’s biggest gathering of comic book fans and has been happening since 2014.
Apart from Lucy who won with “Agent 254’, other winners included Rosa’s Diary by Ndanusa Danjuma Judah (Nigeria) and The Fam by Kabelo Maaka (South Africa). The Fam, by Kabelo Maaka had entered into a previous edition of Animation du Monde, and like so many other projects, Kabelo did not make it through to the continental final. Fortunately, Kabelo took the feedback the judges gave her and was able to improve her pitch, enabling her to win the day at NAICCON 2019. The final Sub Saharan preliminary round of Animation du Monde 2020 will take place at Lagos Comic Con, 19 – 21 September 2019
Animation du Monde is a pitching competition for animators and is run in Africa by the African Animation Network (AAN). AAN will host 5 regional preliminary rounds. They will be in Johannesburg (at ICON CGC), Abidjan (DISCOP Abidjan), Lagos (at Lagos Comic Con), and Nairobi (Nairobi Comic Con). AAN has also partnered with the Accra Animation Film Festival (AAFFia) to add a 5th regional preliminary round.
The African Animation Network is a pro-profit, talent-driven social enterprise and open network that endeavors to build a sustainable African animation industry. The African Animation Network’s primary objective is to empower African animation creators and producers by providing support and advancing social cohesion within the African animation sector.
Kenya’s Naddya Adhiambo Oluoch-Olunya won Animation du Monde at the global finals this year at Annecy with her project UZI. Uzi is a 3 minute long 2d animated short about a perfectionist seamstress and her precocious daughter Kpokpo. The two of them are on a quest to make the world’s most beautiful dress, so they travel all over Kenya looking for finest materials for the garment.