THE WOMEN FILM ACADEMY
is an incubator created for skills development and capacity building of emerging female filmmakers from Africa.

This program has been developed to provide solutions to the lack of partnerships and training opportunities faced by the French African cinema. The program would allow young female filmmakers to develop new skills, get access to mentorship and networks.

Each year, 10 upcoming African female filmmakers, with a project are trained, mentored, and connected to producers for the production of the best short film projects chosen after a pitch proposed and selected by a jury. These short films will then be distributed in African and international film festivals and then screen to people in cities and rural areas of the African countries that took part in the program.

This program takes place in Abidjan online and in person over a period of sixteen (16) months.

Our vision

To be a reference programme in Africa dedicated to the skills development  of African female filmmakers.

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Our mission

Train every year 10 emerging African female filmmakers

Find and connect 10 mentors with the 10  beneficiaries of the program,

 Produce and distribute the films of the beneficiaries,

Our objectives

Training

Facilitate access to training to emerging female filmmakers from Francophone Africa.

Networking

Promote cultural exchange between African countries through cinema;

Collaboration

Promote South-South and North-South co-productions.

Our three main steps

Call for project

Traning and networking

Production & distribution

eligibility

Be an African woman

The women film academy is open to women of African origin. She must be on her first short film project (fiction or documentary) and have a knowledge of the film industry.

The project submitted must be independent

Applicant must not have a producer already associated with the film project.

Be the author of the proposed project

The candidate must be the author of the project with which she is applying.

Our activities

The call for project

A call for project PITCH O' FEMININ for short fiction and documentary projects dedicated to emerging female filmmakers from Africa.

Pitch o' Feminin workshop

The aim is to train for 7 days the 10 chosen beneficiaries so that they can better defend their projects before the final commission in order to have 3 projects produced at the end of the program .

The mentoring

Connect the 10 beneficiaries with mentors in their respective countries, Then create three film files.

The post production

Post-production of the films produced with the director of each of the teams.

Shortlisting 20 candidates

Shortlist the top 20 projects by the commission 1.

The women film summit

The Women’s Film Summit represents the official opening ceremony of the program each year. It is a 3-days event.

The workshops

These are capacity-building workshops for the program beneficiaries. Based on the expertise of professionals from Côte d'Ivoire, Africa and the world, the 10 beneficiaries are trained on different subject in different fields of the film industry for 6 weeks.

The distribution of the films

Distribute the films in 30 festivals across Africa and on other continents.

Selection of the 10 beneficiaries

Selection of the 10 beneficiaries by the commission 2 from the 20 applications after a pitch.

Creation of the production team

Set up 3 teams of 3 people per project at the end of the training.

The production residency

It is during this residency that we welcome in Abidjan the 10 beneficiaries of the program, They create 3 teams and proceed to the production of short films.

The screening of the films

Screening of films in rural areas, on streaming platforms and on television channels.