DAY 3 HIGHLIGHT: Craft, Collaboration and Cinema Community Defined a Packed Third Day at CAMIFF.

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By Njei Ryan FOR BLACK FILM WIRE

By Day Three, CAMIFF 2026 had fully hit its stride. The festival grounds carried that unmistakable midpoint energy, where strangers have become collaborators, workshop participants are beginning to sound like filmmakers, and every room seems to be holding a different conversation about the future of African cinema.

Thursday was one of those festival days where everything seemed to happen at once. Acting. Directing. Cinematography. Screenwriting. Industry exchange. And by nightfall, nostalgia and celebration at Old Timers Night.

Screenwriting Masterclass: Building One Story Together

One of the highlights of the day was the Screenwriting Masterclass led by Buh Melvin, one of Cameroon’s respected screenwriters and story development voices whose work has contributed to nurturing emerging storytellers and strengthening screenplay culture within the country’s growing film industry. where participants moved from individual exercises into collective creation. 

The challenge for the day was ambitious: to synthesise everything learned since Day One into one cohesive script that the entire cohort would develop together into one story.

Before leaving the previous session, participants had been tasked with imagining the world of the film, its setting, emotional atmosphere and character backstories. They returned buzzing with ideas, and after spirited discussion, landed on a bold shared premise:

Together, they mapped out four key scenes tracing a character’s desperation, encounters and the possibility of transformation. To deepen the hands-on process, the class split into two writing teams, each responsible for two scenes, with the challenge of maintaining emotional and visual continuity so the final screenplay would feel unified.

And maybe one of the strongest demonstrations yet of how masterclasses at CAMIFF are moving beyond instruction into actual creation.

Acting Masterclass: Performance Meets Perspective

Across the festival grounds, the Acting Masterclass carried its own momentum.

Day Three built beautifully on earlier sessions, balancing craft work, performance training and industry conversation in a way that made the class feel both rigorous and expansive.

The morning opened with vocal and performance exercises, with participants themselves helping lead segments, a subtle but important shift that reflected growing confidence and ownership.

Then came monologue presentations.

One by one, participants stepped into performance, creating a space for vulnerability, experimentation and growth.

And by all accounts, it wasn’t all solemn concentration — there was laughter, improvisation, and the kind of shared creative energy that makes training memorable.

But the day also widened beyond acting technique.

A conference on the show business industry, moderated by Sally Enanga, brought participants face-to-face with professionals including Musing Derick, Agbor Bechem and Churchill Nanje.

And this was where craft met career.

Discussions moved through film production, media, entrepreneurship and navigating the realities of the entertainment business, with participants actively driving the exchange through questions.

It felt less like a panel and more like a real industry conversation.

And in a powerful closing turn, representatives from Sanity Global Foundation delivered a session on drug abuse in the entertainment industry, bringing in conversations around mental wellbeing, prevention and personal responsibility.

An acting class talking craft and wellness?

That says something about what CAMIFF is building.

Directing and Cinematography: The Craft Continues

Day Three also saw the continuation of the Directing Masterclass led by Enah Johnscott, where participants continued script breakdowns, critique sessions and practical directing exercises that have become one of the festival’s standout training offerings.

Meanwhile, cinematography participants were also deep in technical explorations, adding visual storytelling language to a day already saturated with creative inquiry.

What stood out was not that four masterclasses were happening simultaneously, It was that each was feeding the same ecosystem to make:

• Writers think visually.

• Directors thinking structurally.

• Actors think psychologically.

• Cinematographers thinking narratively.

Old Timers Night: Where Legacy Meets Celebration

And then, after a day built on learning, came memory.

Old Timers Night was about honoring those who paved roads for flowed stories and generations mixed. The room carried that fun festival magic where celebration and history feel inseparable.

From collaborative screenwriting and performance labs to directing rooms, cinematography sessions and an evening honoring veterans of the craft, the day moved fluidly between learning and legacy.

And if African cinema is built through both bold newcomers and seasoned shoulders, Day Three reminded us that CAMIFF is investing in building filmmakers.

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By Day Three, one thing had become increasingly clear at CAMIFF 2026 — this festival is as much a training ground as it is a celebration. Between screenings, conversations in the corridors, and industry sessions shaping new perspectives, there has been a strong undercurrent of mentorship running through the festival. And nowhere was that more evident than in the four-day Directing Masterclass led by filmmaker and facilitator Enah Johnscott.

Among the many highlights unfolding at CAMIFF, this masterclass has emerged as one of the festival’s most dynamic spaces — not simply teaching directing, but testing it, stretching it, and putting it into practice.

And what made it powerful is that it wasn’t built around a single lecture. It unfolded over four days like a process.

A director’s process.

Day One: Waking Up the Director’s Mind

The opening day set the foundation with a central idea that framed the entire workshop: the director as an image bearer.

Johnscott and the facilitators challenged participants to think of directing not as calling shots, but as carrying a vision before anyone else can see it.

The work, they stressed, begins with the script.

A director embraces the writer’s vision, then deepens it — imagining everything from visual composition to wardrobe, production design, and emotional tone long before stepping on set.

Participants were pushed to interrogate story:

Why does this story need to exist?

Who is the protagonist?

What is the film really saying?

It was interactive, probing, and intentionally provocative — designed, as Johnscott framed it, to incite the minds of young directors.

And by the end of Day One, something had shifted.

People weren’t thinking about directing the same way.

Day Two: No Theory, Just Craft

If Day One sparked the mind, Day Two put tools in hand.

And according to the facilitators — this was where the real directing began.

No lectures.

No abstract theory.

Just script breakdown.

Scene by scene, participants moved into the practical mechanics of directing, dissecting scripts, visualizing scenes, and putting decisions on the floor. Questions turned into process. Ideas became blocking. Theory became craft.

And the Q&A? That was where much of the real work happened.

As Johnscott framed it: if Day One woke participants up, Day Two handed them tools.

And the room felt it.

Breaking Down the Story Before You Build It

A major focus was the discipline of script breakdown — reading not just for plot, but for image, rhythm and possibility.

Participants were also encouraged to study films related to their projects, seek professional feedback, and embrace the responsibility of preparation.

One lesson that lingered:

Find the best even in zero.

A philosophy of resourcefulness that resonated deeply.

Especially for emerging filmmakers.

Day Three: Truth, Not Theory

By Day Three, the masterclass had moved into something even richer: critique.

And this may have been the heart of it.

Participants presented their script breakdowns and received feedback — not softened, not abstracted, but what the facilitators called truth, not theory.

A standout addition to the day was the presence of Marek Dobes from the Czech Republic, who joined the session, bringing an international layer to the exchange.

The day became proof of the workshop’s central claim:

Directing is an art.

And yes — it can be learned.

But not through theory alone.

Through doing.

Through feedback.Through years in the trenches.

Through craft.

There was also something bigger hovering over the session — a sense of what collaboration can make possible. The masterclass itself was powered through the partnership between the DGC and CAMIFF, and carried the energy of a space intentionally investing in bold African filmmakers.

And you could feel that.

Day Four: Execution

Then came the final test.

Execution.

Day Four moved participants from analysis into action as student directors engaged in producing a short film project — applying in practice everything the week had layered in theory, breakdown, critique and vision.

And honestly, it was the perfect conclusion.

Because directing can’t end in discussion.

It has to move.

It has to be made.

And on this final day, it was.

More Than a Masterclass

What made this directing lab stand out wasn’t just what was taught, but how it was structured — a progression from awakening, to tools, to critique, to execution.

A four-day journey into what directing actually asks of you.

Vision.Communication.Preparedness.Writing.Decision-making.

Or as the facilitators kept returning to:

Be a prepared director.

And write well.

Simple words.

Heavy charge.

The Takeaway

In a festival packed with screenings and conversations, Enah Johnscott’s Directing Masterclass became one of CAMIFF 2026’s strongest reminders that African cinema grows not only through showcasing films, but through sharpening the filmmakers who will make the next ones.

This wasn’t a workshop about directing in theory.

It was directing in motion.

And if the students who walked out of that room carry even half of what was planted there, some future films may very well trace their beginnings back to this masterclass at CAMIFF.