The recently concluded Nairobi Comic Con hosted the 4th preliminaries of the Annecy Animation du Monde for the second year running. The East Africa region produced another round of great animation talent for the continental finals at Animation du Monde 2020 at DISCOP Johannesburg in November.

Out of 10 shortlisted projects (from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana), the 3 below made it through to the finals and will pitch along 15 other projects from ICON CGC, DISCOP Abidjan, AAFFia and Lagos Comic-Con. The finalists of NAICCON Animation du Monde 2020 are:

• Agent 254 by Lydia Mugure (Kenya)
• Rosa’s Diary  by Ndanusa Danjuma Judah (Nigeria)
• The Fam by Kabelo Maaka (South Africa)

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It’s not winning that matters but the journey. Failure is part of the creative process!

The Fam by Kabelo Maaka was previously entered into the AAFFia 2019 round of Animation du Monde where it made it into the final 12. Undeterred by her inability to win that round, Kabelo submitted once more having worked on the feedback she received from the judges. She improved her pitch to win the day at NAICCON 2019. 

According to African Animation Network, “one of the core missions of Animation du Monde is to teach creatives that it’s not the winning that matters but the journey. Failure is part of the creative process. Because, as an individual, it is important to stand up and try again.” 

The final sub-Saharan preliminary round of Animation du Monde 2020 will take place at Lagos Comic-Con from September 19 – 21, 2019. The deadline for submissions to Animation du Monde at Lagos Comic-Con is today, September 5.

According to African Animation Network, “as a developing animation industry, Africa and its creatives have to take every opportunity to learn. We might have unique stories to tell. But, we still have to develop our creative sensibilities. Something that the judges that sit on the Animation du Monde panels have helped with.” 

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See below for the 10 shortlisted finalists of the NAICCON round of Animation du Monde.

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Annecy Int. Animated Film Festival & Market/MIFA

Festival International du Film d’Animation d’Annecy was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France. Initially occurring every two years, the festival became an annual event in 1998. It is one of the four international animated film festivals sponsored by the Association Internationale du Film d’Animation/ASIFA and is arguably the most prestigious animation festival globally. (Read more HERE)

African Animation Network

The African Animation Network is a pro-profit, talent-driven social enterprise and open network that endeavours to build a sustainable African animation industry.  The African Animation Network’s primary objective is to empower African animation creators and producers by providing support and advancing social cohesion within the African animation sector.​ (Read more HERE)

Nairobi Comic Convention (NAICCON)

NAICCON is the leading Comic Convention in East Africa.  Since its humble inception in 2014, NAICCON now attracts audiences of well over 3,000 attendees.  NAICCON however, has is skewed towards gaming and eSports having hosted the first-ever East African eSports competition at #NAICCON2017.