AIE Graduates create visual effects for Academy-nominated film

(Canberra, Australia) Nawi, a feature film whose visual effects were created by graduates from the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE), has been officially nominated by Kenya for entry into the 97th Academy Awards in the category of Best International Feature Film. Nawi is a heartfelt story about a young girl's journey towards empowerment and aims to shed light on a pressing issue that affects countless young women in the Turkana region of Kenya.

AIE graduates and teachers were given the opportunity to work on the film’s visual effects through AIE’s ongoing partnership with Learning Lions, who produced the film with Film Crew and Baobab Pictures. AIE is proud to support Learning Lions non-profit mission to enable young adults in marginalised rural communities of East Africa to become digital creatives by providing game development training and technology.

The visual effects for Nawi were brought to life by AIE teachers and experienced industry professionals, Thomas Magill and Tom Pugh, who were tasked with supervising the visual effects and liaising with the film’s Directors, Apuu Mourine, Kevin Schmutzler and Tobias Schmutzler. They assembled a team of recent AIE graduates and worked out how to create the effects required to immerse audiences in Nawi’s world.

“Graduates were able to take the skills they had learnt in class and apply them to cinema-quality footage. There was even a bit of nervous excitement working with professional expectations and deadlines” said Tom Pugh.

Thomas Magill explained that most of the work involved compositing such as fixing blemishes, removing unwanted folds in clothing, changing pages in a book and removing background actors that were in the wrong place.

“We had a river shot where there was only a sandbank and we had to create an entire island! There were several shots filmed in a dry riverbed which required us to create floodwater. We had to draw upon various disciplines: not just digital compositing but also visual effects creation and fluid simulations” said Thomas Magill.

Both teachers enthused that the directors were a pleasure to work with and the collaboration was smooth.

“The film has a very important social message to tell so it was rewarding in many ways to be able to contribute to this project. Nawi was a fantastic opportunity for our graduates to put their skills to the test on a full-length feature film” said Tom Pugh.

Learning Lions and AIE look forward to seeing Nawi progress through two rounds of voting by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to narrow the list of submitted films down to five nominees for the Best International Feature Film.

About Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) and Learning Lions

AIE offers practical, career-focused courses delivered by industry-experienced teachers in 3D animation, game development, visual effects and film. Since 2019 AIE has sponsored scholarships for Learning Lions students for their Certificate and Diploma programs. AIE provided laptops and is supporting graduates with opportunities at various gaming companies around the world for paid part-time and full-time work. https://aie.edu.au

Learning Lions is fighting poverty with digital opportunity. Established in 2015, Learning Lions equips local youth with essential IT and media skills, and empowering them to become entrepreneurs and self-sustaining individuals. By leveraging digital services, these aspiring entrepreneurs not only support themselves but also provide opportunities for others through employment and mentorship. https://www.learninglions.org