Content creators on the continent face challenges in terms of training, access to funding, and visibility. Against this backdrop, the call for applications for the fifth edition of Digital Lab Africa has been officially launched to promote and support emerging African talent by accelerating the development of their projects.
Created in 2016, Digital Lab Africa was designed as a pan-African acceleration program dedicated to the creative industries, focusing on several sectors of African digital creation: animation, video games, digital art, music, and virtual reality.
Entirely managed by a South African tech incubator, Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, the program is partly funded by the French Development Agency, SACEM, TV5Monde, and the French Embassy in Nigeria, with support from TRACE, Lagardère Studios, and DISCOP.
For its fifth edition, Digital Lab Africa will be 100% virtual. The incubation and mentoring programs available to DLA#5 winners will take place digitally through workshops, training, mentoring, and participation in online professional events.
This year, the call for applications will take place in two stages: a first phase dedicated to the categories of animation and immersive experiences (XR) scheduled for March and April 2021, and a second phase dedicated to the categories of video games, digital art, and music, which will take place between May and July 2021.
Artists, producers, creators, start-ups, and students are eligible to apply provided they were born or live in a sub-Saharan African country and are supporting an innovative project in one of the five multimedia production categories of the call (digital art, immersive experiences, video games, music, animation).
"With Digital Lab Africa, we want to highlight African creativity, but also create a space for exchange and collaboration between France and the continent, so that these African creative industries can develop and flourish. In this way, we want to encourage co-productions between France and Africa, but also between African countries."
– Alizée Dallemagne, coordinator of Digital Lab Africa
Call for applications for phase 1: March 1 to April 4, 2021
Call for applications for phase 2: May 17 to July 11, 2021