Praia will host the first FilmLab Cabo Verde from 6 to 16 October 2026, a project-development lab for filmmakers from the Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) and Timor-Leste.
It is the second of two 2026 labs from the Rede de Cinema e Audiovisual PALOP+TL, an initiative of Mozambique's Associação dos Amigos do Museu do Cinema (AAMCM). The first, FilmLab Moçambique, runs in Maputo from 25 August to 5 September alongside the KUGOMA forum. Both are financed by Cooperação Portuguesa – Camões I.P. via the PROCERIS programme.
The network's standing partners are EKRAN Eventos, Parallax Produções in Cabo Verde, and Tela Digital Media Group in São Tomé e Príncipe. For the Praia edition, the Kafuka African Film Festival joins as local host; Kafuka holds its second edition in October 2026 after a first run last October that screened 40 films.
FilmLab Cabo Verde will select six short-film projects of 10 to 30 minutes at any stage of development, production, or post-production. Selected projects will be announced on 15 August. The ten-day programme covers financing, distribution, pitching, and sustainable production, with two public screenings.
Network member Samira Vera-Cruz traces the effort to a 2017 lab in Mozambique, where regional filmmakers identified a shared lack of basic sector data — how many filmmakers work, how many films get made, which cinemas operate. The network has restarted a mapping of cinema and audiovisual across the PALOP and Timor-Leste to support future policy and investment.
Source: africanfilmpress.com