The Realness Institute has selected four African screenwriters for the fifth edition of its AuthenticA Series Lab, a six-month development programme for original episodic projects.
The 2026 cohort is Lateefah Mayaki of Nigeria; Ghanaian-Canadian writer and filmmaker Lindsey Addawoo; South African writer-director Phumi Morare; and Cameroonian-born writer, filmmaker and cultural entrepreneur Sahndra Fon Dufe.
AuthenticA is run by the Realness Institute in partnership with The StoryBoard Collective, with support from the Canada Media Fund and Series Mania Forum. Participants develop a completed pilot script and professional pitch deck while retaining full intellectual property rights to their work.
The programme began with an in-person residency in Ethiopia from 17–25 September 2026, followed by online sessions until 14 January 2027.
A second residency will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 19 January–21 March 2027, before the fellows travel to Lille, France, from 22–26 March 2027 to pitch their projects at the African Series Pitch during Series Mania Forum.
“Going into the fifth year of this lab, offering writers the time, mentorship and industry access to turn an original idea into a market-ready series seems even more important in light of what is going on in the world. We need to write a new world, and that begins with supporting fresh voices that have something to say,” said Mehret Mandefro, AuthenticA’s Director of Producing and Showrunning.
The 2026 selection was drawn from 144 applications across more than 27 countries and over 20 television genres.