Cross-Border Mentoring Cohort 2026

ScreenCraft Works is delighted to announce the mentee-mentor matches for its Cross-Border Mentoring Programme 2026. 

Film & TV people seeking to create connections through storytelling in an increasingly fractured world emerges as a key focus, along with a desire to build global alliances through co-productions.
An increased number of African mentors and mentees join this year’s programme, with many of the cohort seeking diasporic collaborations and co-productions. 

The 2026 cohort comes together for ScreenCraft Works’ sixth Cross-Border Mentoring programme, designed to support international career development and build global industry networks for under-represented film & TV professionals.

The 2026 Cross-Border Mentoring cohort comprises 60 people with heritage from or living and working in 33 countries: 30 mentees have been matched with 30 volunteer mentors from another country, based on their career aspirations. The nine-month career-development programme is based on the UK’s ScreenSkills (supported by the BFI) mentoring model.

The Cross-Border Mentoring matches 2026

The following are the mentee-mentor matches for the nine-month programme (mentee names in bold):

Animation
Isolda Milenkovic (Serbia, UK) – Anna Eijsbouts (Netherlands)

Writers
Anastasiya Ador (Ukraine, Belarus, India, UK) – Adam Baroukh (UK)
CC McLoughlin (Ireland, USA) – Kate Triggs (UK)
Denia Morgan (Jamaica) – Munzir Naqvi (India)

Producers
Alex Williams (UK) – Sana Soni (India, Hungary, UK, USA)
Fisola Olukoya (UK) – Whittmey Payne (USA, Nigeria, Barbados)
Karim Zein (Lebanon, UK) – Axel Stegmaier (Germany)
Lisa Kochanova (Ukraine, UK) – Jonathan Curling (UK)
Tshepo Naledi Mokwena (South Africa) – Koura Linda (USA)

Writer-director-producer
Anouk Witkowska Hiffler (France, Germany, UK) – Angelo D’Agostino (Austria)
Chitra Soundararajan (India, UK) – Temilola Adebayo (Nigeria, Canada)
Ema Edosio Deelen (Nigeria) – Tamara Howe (UK)
Ina Sotirova (Bulgaria, Jamaica) – Lesedi Mphothwe (Botswana)
Ja Yoon Kim (South Korea, UK) – Yulia Buzhinskaya (Russia, Indonesia)
Sheeba Sehgal (India, UK) – Thandeka Zwana (South Africa, Nigeria)
Uchenna Ugwu (Nigeria) – Ernie Vosloo (South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania)
Yasmine Holness-Dove (UK) – Paulina Bietz (Germany)

Editing
Amantle Molefhe (South Africa) – Nikki McChristie (UK)
Eesha Dev (India, Ireland) – Rory Murphy (UK)
Faith Wong (Singapore) – Naomi Smallwood (UK)  
Lea Gudelj (Croatia, UK) – Mark Hartzell (USA)

Composers
Ebenezer Eferobor (Nigeria, USA) – Eric Horstmann (Germany)
Erica Porter (USA) – Rafael Vieira (Brazil)
Erv Jeffries (USA) – Jolene Khor (Malaysia, UK)

Sound designers / post sound
Amir Ashoori (Iran, UK) – Casey Dunmore (USA)
Umer Shafqat (Pakistan, UK) – Gabriel Malherbe (South Africa)
Iroroghene Odafejirorosua (Nigeria) – James Olivier (South Africa, Netherlands)
Princess Samuel (Nigeria) – Tim Harrison (UK, Spain)

Post-production supervisors
Sára Němečková (Czech Republic) – Jeannine Dowling-Jones (UK)
Ates Brown (Nigeria) – Claire Lawton (USA) 

With a focus on jobs that can be conducted remotely or hybrid, the 2026 mentoring cohort includes the departments and roles of animation, writers, producers, editors, composers, sound designers and post-production sound, post-production supervisors, and filmmakers working across several roles.

The mentees include people seeking to create connections through the craft of storytelling in an increasingly fractured world, including those who have been displaced seeking cultural understanding of their new local industry.  

Mentees wish to explore fresh global perspectives to enrich their local work as well as seeking to develop their international careers, including through links across diasporas. 

Mentees also include people wishing to build alliances across borders for international  co-productions, to form relationships with in-country teams for more sustainable filming, or to connect with partner organisations for new global perspectives and collaborations. 

Co-directors Rebecca del Tufo & Elizabeth McIntyre say:
“In the ScreenCraft Works mentoring community, we strive to strengthen global industry allyship for the exchange of knowledge, experience and perspectives for better mutual understanding and inspiration. The urge to strengthen creative bonds across borders is clear. We are grateful to our volunteer mentors and supporters, who enable us to conduct our cross-border mentoring scheme.”

80% of the mentees identify as women or other marginalised genders. The mentee group includes people with a disability (17%), those from the LGBTQIA+ community (33%), work returners, those with caring responsibilities and people from rural areas without good transport and communication. The mentees describe a broad range of ethnic, cultural and belief backgrounds. They span all career stages.

The selected mentees and mentors are across the following 33 countries, nationalities or heritages:
Austria, Barbados, Belarus, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Tanzania, The Netherlands, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America.   

We are grateful to our volunteer mentors and our sponsors and supporters, who enable us to carry out the ScreenCraft Works Cross-Border Mentoring programme.