Kalema Lawrence
Ugandan animator Raymond Malinga is flying high following being selected among the top 10 animators on the continent by Disney.
Malinga, the CEO Creatures Animation Studio earned himself fame with his short film, A Kalabanda Ate My Homework that not only caught the attention of Ugandans but also the world at large.
According to him, there was a call last year for directors and other creatives who had a story to tell across Africa done through Triggerfish Animation Studios (South Africa). So he decided to apply and shared a couple of ideas which hima and the team thought were good for telling an African story.
It was later learnt that out of the 70 people who submitted ideas, only 10 were chosen and was among them.
He will now be representing Uganda as one of the top toon talents from six African nations selected to produce an original anthology of animated films dubbed Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire set to air on Disney Plus in 2022.
Each selected animator will be coming up with an independent film with Malinga’s expected to be about 10-12minutes in length that he has already started working with teams from Disney, Triggerfish aas well as other talents from all over the world including Oscar-nominated director Peter Ramsey (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) as the executive producer. The film is being shot partly in South Africa and Uganda.
Malinga started his animation career in 2010 in Malaysia where he did his Bachelor’s in Animation and Visual Effects. In 2014, he came back home to start his own animation studio.
His short film, A Kalabanda Ate my Homework is a six-time award-winning film that also represented Uganda at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 and won the African International Film Festival, Animation Award with other 15 nominations.
