Last Mile Film Fund Champions

Amarachi Nwosu is a Nigerian American self-taught filmmaker, artist, writer, and producer. She is also the founder of Melanin Unscripted, a media platform that creates stories, conversations, and experiences centered around underrepresented narratives. The grant will support post-production for African Creative Class. “It empowers us to explore Africa’s vibrant creative scene and amplify the voices that shape its artistic spirit and innovation coming out of the Continent. This project will not only produce culturally rich stories for global audiences but also increase visibility for African creatives, sparking a richer dialogue about the continent’s creative capacity.”

Sarah Mallia is co-founder and CEO of Pungulu Pa Productions, a Nairobi-based animation studio dedicated to producing children’s content that celebrates African stories, culture, natural history through engaging and entertaining experiences. Their flagship show, Uli & Tata’s African Nursery Rhymes, is a 2D animated series that follows the adventures of siblings in search of Africa’s nursery rhymes. Their grant will fund the show’s first nine episodes. “It will provide the much-needed resources to ensure that the post-production phase—comprising compositing, editing, sound design, and music composition—is executed to the highest possible standard.”

David Mbouss studied International Business at École Supérieure du Commerce Extérieur and completed a master’s degree in Luxury Marketing. His grant will fund the completion of Afrotopia, a film that challenges long-standing assumptions and affirms the capacity of African creators to develop stories that are profound, structured, and universal. “Receiving the Africa No Filter grant represents far more than financial support. It is a powerful sign that Pan-African solidarity is not just an ideal but a tangible reality. It reminds me that I am not alone in this mission to elevate African narratives. This support gives me strength, legitimacy, and the reassuring sense of not walking this often difficult and solitary path by myself.”

Rashida Seriki is an award-winning British Nigerian writer and filmmaker that uses visual storytelling as anthropological study. Her work sits within the genres of drama, comedy, and magical realism across film, TV, literature, and theatre. She has original series in development and has written for shows such as We Are Lady Parts (Channel 4/Peacock) and Eastenders (BBC). Her grant supports the distribution of Leaving Ikorodu in 1999. “It gives my film the opportunity to be seen by an audience my financiers do not consider. It allows me to take control of the distribution of my project and push for cultural change, awareness, and shift without the restrictions that Western financiers impose.’

Djeydi Djigo — producer, director, and CEO of Invictus Media Group — is Senegalese filmmaker drawn to historical documentary filmmaking. He also develops and directs music videos, and institutional films. The grant will fund the completion of Yambo Ouologuem: The Wound, a documentary that explores the exceptional journey of the Malian writer. “This grant represents a crucial step; the final hammer strike needed to bring the project to completion. It will allow us to finalize missing illustrations, continue musical composition with artist Obam (from Super Étoile), and resume ten days of editing.”

Citizen Kwame is a conceptual film about travel visas and the well-known struggles of travelling while Black or African. 

Mzigo is a pan African love story that seeks to raise awareness about sickle cell disease, a modern day family story that portrays the highs and lows of living with the disease, the effect it has on loved ones and the challenges they go through. 

Upington, South Africa – 2013. Fire burns Katriena Esau’s N/uu school. She calls it the day fire burnt the language of her soul. But the burning of her school is not the first time her language was silenced. 

What is it like being a young person in Nigeria, where being put under the microscope of cyber-crime has become a defining narrative? 

The Native Question explores race, identity, and memory through the story of Tara’s upbringing as a mixed race South African Indian woman of Canadian and British descent. 

6SENSE tells the story of Mxshi Mo, a young man from Kwa-Zulu Natal, who, whilst dealing with the gradual decline into blindness, finds his hidden talent in Gqom music production – shining a light on a potential path out of his own personal darkness.

In Sync is a short film about the practical use cases of Artificial Intelligence in communities in Eastern Uganda.