FOUR Zimbabweans — Komborerai Chapfika, Marvin Madyara, Tafadzwa Hove and journalist Charmaine Chitate — are among the 30 finalists for the Digital Lab Africa (DLA) Pitch Competition with 10 set to be announced winners on April 30.
The 10 winners will get R42 000 cash prize and a tailor-made incubation programme to accelerate their project development with mentors from French and Sub-Saharan creative industries, a residency period in France within a digital cluster and participation at industry events in France or Sub-Saharan Africa.
The four have been shortlisted in the Animation (Chapfika), Digital Music (Madyara) and Virtual Reality, (Tafadzwa Hove and Charmaine Chitate) categories and their pitches would be in the ring from April 15 to 28 when internet users will vote for their favourite pitch.
According to the organisers, those keen to vote should first open an account on the DLA platform.
“To vote, you first need to create an account and login on the platform. It is then possible to vote for any project you like (you can vote for more than one), with a maximum of one vote per project/pitch video,” they said.
“The pitch videos for each entry will be made available on the voting platform.”
The project that attracts the highest number of votes on the platform will be awarded a special prize — DLA Audience Award — including an all-expenses-paid invitation for one person to one of the DLA Industry events in France or in the Sub-Saharan African region.
Madyara was nominated for Swaggify, Chitate for I Am A Woman/Stories about Her, Chapfika for Frozilla and Hove for The Crossing.
The other categories were Video Game and Web Creation. Each category had a selection committee responsible for shortlisting the best works.
DLA is the first platform dedicated to creative content, including web creation, virtual reality, video game, animation and digital music linked with innovation in Africa, with the aim of incubating emerging talent by offering them a springboard to jumpstart and accelerate their projects.
It was created in 2016 under the auspices of the French Institute and the French embassy in South Africa and managed by the South African innovation hub, Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct since 2018.
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