The British Council has launched a UK-Nigeria screenwriting initiative called Script Junction, which will officially launch at the upcoming Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF – June 19-23, 2015), which will be followed by a second 5-day program set to take place at the Africa International Film Festival in Nigeria in November.

Script Junction targets up-and-coming writers, early in their careers, who are working on scripts of all genres. In total, 12 writers (6 British and 6 Nigeria) have been selected for the inaugural event: Shola Amoo, Maurice Caldera, Russell Davidson, Sam Firth, Matthew Jankes and Jennifer Majka representing the Brits; and Kenneth Gyang, Adiodun Kassim, Nicolette Ndigwe, CJ Obasi, Pearl Osibu and Lanre Quadri repping Naija. 

Some of these names should be familiar to readers of this blog – Shola Amoo, Kenneth Gyang, and CJ Obasi notably.

All 12 participants will go through a series of workshops, talks and mentoring sessions by senior industry professionals, and at the November section of the program, each of them will pitch their projects to an industry panel.

Rob Ritchie, screenwriter and former head of the screenwriting department at the UK’s National Film and Television School (NFTS), will lead the initiative, with Lorianne Hall from the UK and Ishaku Dashon Gumut from Nigeria also contributing to the effort.

The UK’s National Film and Television School (NFTS) and the Nigerian Film Institute are also partners in the program. 

Congrats to all the selected. I’m sure we’ll be talking about them and their individual projects in the future.