Kenya’s Voline Ogutu Among Netflix’s Short Film Competition Winners

Kenyan screenwriter Voline Ogutu is among the six winners of Netflix’s ‘African Folktales, Reimagined’ short film competition, in partnership with UNESCO.

Known as one of the best screenwriters in Kenya, some of Ogutu’s works include Kalasha winner and Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) nominee 40 Sticks, Kalasha winner Njoro wa Uba, Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice (AMVCAs) nominee How to Find a Husband and Showmax police procedural and Kalasha nominee Crime and Justice season two.

Recently, she’s also been tapped as one of the writers for the upcoming political thriller, County 49, another Showmax Original series which will premiere later in 2022.

Joining Ogutu on the winners’ list is Uganda’s filmmaker Loukman Ali made who made history late last year after his feature The Girl in the Yellow Jumper became the first Uganda film to stream on Netflix.

Other winners of the ‘African Folktales, Reimagined’ competition include Tanzania’s Walter Mzengi, Mauritania’s Mohamed Echkouna, Nigeria’s Korede Azeez and South Africa’s Gcobisa Yako.

Each winner will receive US$25,000 plus a production budget of US$75,000 to create short films through a local production company and under the guidance of Netflix-appointed supervising producer and industry mentors from across the continent.

The six filmmakers will now go into the development phase of their projects, before starting production on the short films that will eventually premiere on Netflix as part of ‘An Anthology of African Folktales’ later this year. They will be mentored by acclaimed African filmmakers which include Femi Odugbemi, Jenna Bass, Leila Djansi, Pape Boye, Bongiwe Selane and Tosh Gitonga.

The competition was launched by Netflix and UNESCO in October 2021, with the goal of promoting diverse local stories and bringing them to the world. The competition was also a step towards creative equity – as part of the Netflix Creative Equity Fund, which aims at enabling new voices from underrepresented communities within entertainment to bring their perspectives to a global audience.