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On the morning of March 12, 2026, Akunna Cook's Next Narrative Africa Fund named its much-anticipated inaugural cohort of nine film and television projects. I ended my dispatch on the news by stating that I'd have more to say later. Well, it's later... Reactions continue to come in — on X, on Instagram, in emails and DMs, primarily from professionals on the continent, where a specific kind of exhaustion is clearly prevalent. The announcement landed in an environment that, for many, feels close to hopeless when it comes to explicitly Africa-facing film and series financing. Canal+ plans to shut down Showmax following its takeover of MultiChoice, closing off one of the continent's most prolific commissioners of local screen work. Netflix had already pulled back from original commissioning in Nigeria and Kenya while saying it would continue investing selectively, with South Africa still its main base on the continent. Amazon had already stopped backing African originals in January 2024. At the same time, Afreximbank's promised $1 billion Africa Film Fund still looms, leaving the sector with another large financing promise that has yet to produce a visible, continent-wide production pipeline. Before getting into the analytical layer, it's worth being precise about what was actually announced, because, on the surface, the headline number and what these nine projects have received are not the same thing. These nine are development-stage projects drawing from the $10 million nonprofit venture studio, not the $40 million commercial equity fund. They are technically development grantees. The larger fund has not yet committed to any of them.
