Accelerate Filmmaker Project Makes  a Comeback with Fifth Edition

Iyke Bede

 Continuing its culture of empowering young filmmakers in Nigeria, Accelerate Studios has returned with the fifth instalment of the Accelerate Filmmaker Project (AFMP).

Powered by Access Bank and Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), the programme will offer training sessions, insights, and experience to emerging filmmakers seeking to expand their skills and opportunities for growth.

Running on the theme ‘Africa Reimagined,’ Head of Production at Accelerate Studios, Esse Akwawa, explained that the goal of this edition is “to push the programme to a global audience.” This is also reflected in the number of trainees it will accommodate, which has doubled from 25 to 50 compared to the last edition.

The tuition-free programme has included training sessions led by industry experts like Joke Silva, BB Sasore, Kemi Adetiba, Chris Odeh, and many others. The areas covered in filmmaking will include but are not limited to, scriptwriting, acting, directing, cinematography, producing, makeup and SFX, and soundtrack production.

“This edition will be more robust and engaging than ever before,” CEO, Accelerate, Colette Otusheso noted. “Unlike the previous edition that comes with a week of training, we have a two-week intensive programme planned to train and empower young budding filmmakers and give them the skills, tools, mentorship, and access to industry leaders to gain skills for impact and employability.”

She added, “Everything about AFMP is about education, empowerment, and obviously, entertainment. But if we don’t concentrate on the education, the empowerment side, how are we going to get the entertainment side up to the level that we want it to be? So it was important that we started creating communities of people that are able to support each other.”

The two-week training will culminate in a pitch session where trainees are allowed to present their short film ideas to the AFMP industry mentors. The top five selections will be funded for production and will be subsequently showcased at the 2024 edition of AFRIFF. d to participate in a special edition of the game show, where they were grouped into Team MTN and Team Momo. This interactive session further emphasised the show’s goal of strengthening bonds through play,  and at the end of the exercise, reflected the impact of the show on Nigerian families