The Realness Institute in partnership with The StoryBoard Collective, and the Canada Media Fund has announced the four Afri can participants for the fourth edition of the AuthenticA Series Lab.
The event gives screenwriters a unique opportunity to shape their original ideas into episodic storytelling across any genre.
The cohort for the 2025 edition includes award-winning Ghanaian storyteller Gamel Apalayine who works across film, TV, theatre, and music; award-winning Nigerian-British poet, filmmaker, and photographer Joladé Olusanya; acclaimed Kenyan scriptwriter and bestselling author Mona Ombogo; and award-winning Egyptian-Canadian filmmaker and human rights advocate Reem Morsi.
The aim of AuthenticA is to ensure that upon completion of the programme, participants will have professionally developed pitch decks, their pilot scripts, and a series “Bible” to support their proposals for funding and support – in line with international standards. All intellectual property rights in the material developed will remain with the respective writer.
The dynamic programme kicked off with an 8-day in-person residency in the Western Cape, South Africa (Coot Club, based in Stanford) from September 3 to September 10 and was followed by online sessions which will last until mid-December.
The second in-person residency takes place in Geneva, Switzerland, from January 19 to March 19, 2026. The final residency will take place in Lille, France, from March 20 to March 27, 2026, where they will pitch their projects as part of the African Series Pitch at the Series Mania Forum in Lille, France, Europe’s largest co-production series market and festival that attracts talent scouts, sales agents, broadcasters, investors and distributors.
The AuthenticA Series Lab will be led by Emmy-nominated film/television producer and writer, and Interim Managing Director of the Realness Institute, Mehret Mandefro as Director of Producing and Showrunning; with Selina Ukwuoma, an award-winning freelance script consultant as Director of Writing Programmes.
Submissions this year came from 168 applications, over 24 countries, covering over 30 genres of television series.
