University News Last updated 13 March 2018
A Birmingham student who founded a film school in Kenya is celebrating after a group of his protégés were recognised at one of the world’s most-respected awards ceremonies – The Oscars.
39-year-old Wilfred Kiumi currently studies Film Distribution and Marketing at Birmingham City University and recently set up a film school in his hometown of Nairobi after working in the film industry for almost 20 years.
Eight of Wilfred’s students worked with a small group of scholars from Hamburg Media School in Germany to produce the film ‘Watu Wote (or All of Us)’, which tells the story of a terror attack on a bus in Kenya by militant group Al-Shabaab.
The movie was nominated in the category of best short live action film at the 90th Academy Awards, otherwise known as The Oscars, hosted in Hollywood earlier this month.
“I’m extremely proud of the students who worked on this film as it’s the dream of every filmmaker to work on an Oscar-nominated film,” said Wilfred.
Setting up the Africa Digital Media Institute (ADMI) has allowed Wilfred to bring to reality his ambitions of teaching students how to produce, shoot and deliver visual content by themselves without having to rely on others.