By Kefa Senoga
Uganda Christian University’s (UCU) School of Journalism, Media and Communication is not yet a film academy. The school trains journalists, communicators and multimedia storytellers. Yet from its classrooms have emerged young creatives who have developed a growing filmmaking culture and are already attracting national recognition.
In recent years, UCU students have been announced among the winners in different categories at the Uganda Film Festival, the country’s national film awards organised by the Uganda Communications Commission. Last year, Brian Kabogozza, a continuing Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication student, won Best Student Film for Dinner for Three, and Douglas Byaruhanga claimed Best Original Soundtrack for Fatal. This year, Emmanuel Illungole, a recent graduate, stood among the young producers of “You May Kiss the Bride Goodbye” as the film claimed Best Feature Film.
On the surface, these may seem like three individual success stories. But together, they raise a more intriguing question: what is happening inside a journalism and communication school that is producing students capable of competing on Uganda’s biggest film stage? The answer may lie in a place where filmmaking is not necessarily taught as an isolated craft, but as part of a broader understanding of storytelling.
UCU never set out to build a film school. It simply empowered its journalism students not to stop at the news desk. Before they graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, students are immersed in the broader world of media through journalism, communication, writing, production and storytelling. They produce weekly television bulletins and podcasts for UCU Focus TV, the student-run digital television platform, and contribute to The Standard, the university’s community newspaper.
Film also forms part of the students’ formal assessment, as they must participate in a film project, taking part in the entire production process from pre-production and scripting to filming, sound, editing, and post-production. The project is graded and forms part of the requirements students must fulfil before graduation.
In other words, students are not simply taught how media works; they are expected to make it. All of this becomes part of the learning experience. And somewhere between reporting a story and creating one, some students discover filmmaking as their calling because they had to make film while learning everything else.
In this environment, Brian Kabogozza began turning his interest in filmmaking into something more tangible. In 2022, he mobilised fellow students, utilised university premises and set out to make his first film, My Degree, an 11-minute campus story about pride and graduation. The film earned an Ikon Awards nomination, giving the young filmmaker an early taste of recognition beyond the university.
He followed it with My Background, which won at the Student World Impact Film Festival in the United States, and My First Year. By 2025, his short film Dinner for Three won Best Student Film at the Uganda Film Festival. Its journey did not end there, as it later received Best Student Film recognition at the Kaduna and Pearl film festivals in Kenya, as well as Best International Director in Malawi.
UCU did not invent Kabogozza’s passion; it gave him a foundation to build on through access to equipment, fellow students willing to collaborate, a practical environment to experiment, and eventually a stage to show his work.
“UCU gave me the opportunity to learn filmmaking by actually doing it. Through the practical projects, I was able to work with other students, use the available equipment and understand the different stages of making a film. That experience gave me the confidence to keep developing my ideas beyond the classroom,” Kabogozza said.
For Ilungole, the same environment opened a different path into filmmaking. By the time he joined the production team behind “You May Kiss the Bride Goodbye”, the journey had moved beyond the familiar territory of student filmmaking; he produced “My Degree” alongside Kabogozza and quickly realised editing and producing were his language. He went on to projects including Perfect Lie and Neighbour.
According to Ilungole, UCU exposed him to different sides of storytelling and allowed him to work in different roles. “Working on these projects with other students gave me the experience of taking an idea from the classroom and turning it into a finished film,” he adds.
Through the European Union and International Trade Centre-supported Opportunities, Ilungole joined a team of young creatives who wrote, produced, and shepherded the psychological thriller, You May Kiss the Bride Goodbye. The film, a sharp story of obsession, arranged power, and Kampala ambition, became the most nominated title at the 2026 Uganda Film Festival and won Best Feature Film for its young producers’ team (including Illungole). For Ilungole, it marked a significant leap, from participating in student productions to helping produce a feature film that entered Uganda’s national film industry and took its biggest prize. Illungole has spoken of UCU’s drama and documentary units as the moment the calling crystallised.
Douglas Byaruhanga arrived via a different door. He dabbled in acting in Senior Four, then discovered music and production during his Journalism and Mass Communication degree at UCU. Class projects required students to produce, direct or perform, and the experience stayed with him. His Rutooro ballad soundtrack for the film Fatal earned him the first-ever Best Original Soundtrack award at the 2025 Uganda Film Festival
“My time at UCU helped me see that storytelling is not limited to writing or visuals. I discovered how music and sound could become part of the story itself, and that gave me the confidence to explore that side of my creativity.” Byaruhanga narrates.
John Semakula, head of undergraduate studies at the UCU School of Journalism, Media and Communication, noted that the stories of Kabogozza, Ilungole and Byaruhanga point to something larger than individual talent.
“We intentionally equipped our students with skills in line with the competence-based curriculum even before the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) made it a requirement,” Semakula said.
Geoffrey Ssenoga, who lectures in film and documentary production at the UCU School of Journalism, Media and Communication, says the school’s strength lies in giving students practical exposure to storytelling in its different forms. Rather than separating journalism from film, students are encouraged to carry the skills they learn in one area into another. UCU may not have set out to be a film school, but its approach to practical storytelling has given students room to discover filmmaking along the way. From Kabogozza’s directing to Ilungole’s producing and Byaruhanga’s sound, their journeys show what can happen when journalism and media training open the door to more than the newsroom.
