Mimi Bartels and Abba Makama have been selected among six producers for the 2026 African Producers Accelerator (APA), a programme supporting mid-career African film and television producers.
The cohort was announced at the Cannes Film Festival and selected from 267 applications across 31 countries.
Bartels, co-founder of Anakle Films, has produced titles including Adire and Kambili: The Whole 30 Yards, both acquired by Netflix.
Makama, known for Juju Stories and The Lost Okoroshi, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019, joins producers from across the continent, including South Africa’s Babalwa Baartman and David Franciscus, Ghana’s Kofi Owusu-Afriyie and Sudan’s Khalid Awad.
Over a three-month programme, participants will pitch their projects to investors at a lab in Cape Town in July, before a second presentation at Canex WKND, a four-day industry event in Lagos in November.
The initiative also announced new institutional partnerships. South Africa’s National Film and Video Foundation will support the Cape Town lab, while Canex — the Creative Africa Nexus programme of the African Export-Import Bank — will co-deliver the Lagos pitch event and facilitate investor engagement.
Launched in 2025 by Big World Cinema in partnership with the Bertha Foundation, the African Producers Accelerator combines advisory support, business development, and access to international film financing networks.
