Announced earlier this month, the second edition of the Annecy – MIFA Pitches Animation du Monde has narrowed down the prospective contenders to five African-born toon concepts. These semifinalists will compete at DISCOP Abidjan on May 29:
Shegbe represented by Ayodele Elegba (Nigeria)
Étincelle represented by Ouassila Kharoune (Burkina Faso)
Placman represented by Cénack kouamé (Côte d’Ivoire)
Koka Kitoumbou represented by Shekartoon (Congo Braza)
les 1 2 3 4 5 represented by Ange Patrick Digbeu (Cote d’Ivoire)
DISCOP Abidjan, which has a strong focus on Francophone West African animation through partnerships with AIFA (Association Ivoirienne du Film d’Animation) and ABCA (Association Burkinabè du Cinéma d’Animation), is the first of five events in African hosting regional competition rounds of Animation du Monde. The expansion across more events is possible through DISCOMICS, a new enterprise of DISCOP and the African Animation Network in partnership with ICON Comics & Gaming Convention, Lagos Comic Con and Nairobi Comic Con.
“This year there has been a higher volume of submissions from Francophone West Africa, with Anglophone contestants likely preferring to enter the LCC event,” commented Nick Wilson, Head of Projects at AAN and co-founder of DISCOMICS. “This is of course what we were intending, we want the Annecy – MIFA Pitches Animation du Monde competition in Africa to be as accessible as possible to as many people in the African animation sector as possible.”
Participating events are:
ICON CGC, Johannesburg, South Africa, 29 June – 01 July (Entries close 22 June)
DISCOP Zanzibar, Tanzania, 11 July – 13 July (Entries open 31 May – 27 June)
NAICCON, Nairobi, Kenya, 11 August – 12 August (Entries open 20 June – 20 July)
LCC, Lagos, Nigeria, 15 September (Entries open 24 July – 24 August)
Two projects from each event will attend the Grand Finale at DISCOMICS Joburg (Nov. 14-17), and the best two pitches will represent Africa in France at Annecy/MIFA 2019. Grand finalists will also have access to the Animation du Monde Skills Programmer, which includes pitching workshops, training and one-on-one meetings with industry experts ahead of the big day in Johannesburg.
