With around 3,500 films produced each year, West Africa is the most prolific region on the continent. However, professional training remains a strategic issue for the development and structuring of the audiovisual industry.
To address this challenge, Éric M'Boua and Mbépongo Bilamba have decided to launch a new special effects training program called "Afro VFX.
" "VFX (special effects) play an important role in audiovisual production, generating thousands of jobs around the world.Witnessing the creativity of African youth, the observation that they are on the margins of the VFX dynamic led us to design the AFRO VFX program, an initiative aimed at training "digital artists" in the basics of cinematic special effects.
The program aims to train 10 digital artists over a period of four months through partners of the École NAD in Montreal. At the end of the training, these 10 artists will also have the opportunity to participate in the production of three short films.
A call for applications for the first free AfroVFX training course has been launched in Abidjan in partnership with Orange Digital Center Côte d'Ivoire. Twenty candidates will be selected to participate. The list of successful applicants will be published on March 22.
For now, the program is being rolled out in Côte d'Ivoire, but ultimately, the founders intend to open the program to other countries to offer opportunities to African youth more broadly.