Kenyan producers are in luck as the fifth edition of the Creative Producer Indaba (CPI) seeks 15 producers to join its November cohort.
The CPI is a professional development programme designed for film producers that aims at sharpening their leadership and entrepreneurial skills while expanding their creative capacity.
Kenyans who have applied and benefited from this programme include Bramwell Iro, co-founder of LBx Africa, a Nairobi-based production company that produces high-quality fiction and non-fiction content for the international market.
Bramwell worked on films such as “Watu Wote/All of Us” (2017) as a service producer and was Executive Producer of the documentary film highlighting career activist Boniface Mwangi.
At the time of his selection, Bramwell said he “thankful” for the opportunity.
How the programme works
With a focus on creative outputs within a professional business framework, the programme combines group seminar sessions as well as collaborative group workshops that will look at successful case studies, drawing on the learnings from these.
One-on-one engagements with mentors and guest experts around participants’ projects are also offered, so that participants have tangible takeaways from their experience.
The cohort will focus on key areas including project development and planning, financing, legal frameworks, marketing, publicity, advocacy and lobbying, organisational growth, network management, and leadership.
All three workshops in 2025 will take place in the African and Indian Ocean regions. Additionally, this year the programme will collaborate with two new festival partners to be announced later.
Workshop 1 will be held from November 14 to 21, 2025; Workshop 2 from February 8 to 12, 2026, and Workshop 3 from April 25 to 30, 2026.
For this edition, Ethiopian-American film/television producer and Interim Managing Director of the Realness Institute, Mehret Mandefro and Belgian award-winning film producer Diana Elbaum will serve as group leaders and mentors.
Eligibility criteria
The CPI is looking for African and Indian Ocean Producers (not directors) with or without a film project (feature film, episodic or feature documentary project) and producers outside of Africa (without a project) who have an interest in co-producing with Africa. Relevant criteria for the programme can be found on the application forms.
While some costs are covered by the programme, other costs are not. Applicants are advised to familiarise themselves with the funding structures on the application forms so that they can be sure they will be able to provide their own funds or obtain funding from other sources for aspects of the programme.
However, through the partnerships with the Brazilian foundation Projeto Paradiso, Canada Media Fund, Telefilm, the Swiss Foundation for professional training in cinema and audiovisual media (FOCAL), the Austrian Film Institute, and the French National Centre of Cinema (CNC), each has one spot specifically reserved for a producer in their country wanting to co-produce an African project.
This partnership guarantees that all programme expenses will be covered for the selected participants from the listed partnering countries (except for per diems).
Applications are now open and will close on October 5 2025.
