Netflix & Triggerfish Team for African Story Artist Lab

Triggerfish has opened a call for entries for a pan-African Story Artist Lab, sponsored by Netflix.

Shortlisted applicants will have three months of paid skills development with international industry experts. Nathan Stanton, a story artist on Oscar-winning features such as Brave, Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc., will lead the training program.

The Story Artist Lab builds on the success of the Mama K’s Team 4 all-female writers lab, which saw nine African women placed in the writing room for the first animated Netflix series from Africa.

“Story artists translate screenplays into animatics, the loose first version of the movie that then shapes every step of animation that follows,” said Tendayi Nyeke, Triggerfish’s Zimbabwean-born development executive. “So having skilled story artists from the continent in control of how their stories are told is a gamechanger, not only in grooming the next African directors but also in giving pre-production artists the opportunity to establish their own voice as they bring African stories to life.”