For years, Uganda’s film industry has grappled with disunity and skepticism towards organised guilds and unions, with many filmmakers dismissing them as money making ventures by “selfish” producers. Others refused to be part of the “downtown industry”; a term used to describe part of the industry that primarily serves local language speaking audiences.

Despite efforts to establish collectives, such as the Uganda Federation of Movie Industry (UFMI), a royalty-collecting organisation formed in 2006, awareness and participation among filmmakers has remained low. During the Annual General Meeting at the end of 2025, where a new board was elected to serve for the next four years, it was revealed that little to no royalties have been disbursed to creators since the organisation’s founding. In fact, UFMI’s expenses have exceeded the revenue collected by over UGX 2 million.

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Other guilds, including the Association of Core Film Producers Uganda Limited (ACFPUL) and the Association of Film Actors Uganda Ltd (AFAUL), both founded in 2018 under the Pearlwood umbrella, as well as the Cinematographers Guild, Writers Guild, Editors Guild, and the Pearlwood Cinema Hall Operators Association Limited, have similarly struggled to gain traction.

Many industry players, particularly prominent producers and actors, have shunned these organisations due to internal politics and a lack of trust in their leadership. However, a shift is underway as filmmakers and actors begin to recognise the risks of remaining unorganised. In 2025, the industry saw a surge in new guilds with fresh leadership, including the National Producers Guild of Uganda, the Screenwriters Guild, the Costume Designers Guild of Uganda, the Filmmakers SACCO, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Sound Recordists Guild, with more reportedly in the pipeline.

Uganda’s film and television industry continues to face challenges that cut across the board. Among them is the country’s limited exhibition infrastructure. Uganda, a country with an estimated population of 50 million (as of 2024), has only five cinemas and roughly 15 screens nationwide, a reality that significantly hinders theatrical distribution and limits revenue potential. Exploitation, whether financial, labour-related, or sexual, remains a pressing issue, particularly for actors and crew members who often occupy the industry’s lower tiers.

Producers also grapple with regulatory ambiguity and occasional government overreach, creating uncertainty and hindering growth. The absence of clear, enforceable structures has left the industry fragmented, with individuals largely working in isolation, often at the expense of quality. Many of the other challenges stem from these core issues.

With this renewed interest in guilds and associations, the key question becomes whether these bodies can offer solutions, or at least meaningful progress, toward addressing the industry’s long-standing problems.

This resurgence has been led largely by the National Producers Guild of Uganda, under producer, director and actor Mathew Nabwiso. The guild has set out ambitious plans, aiming to build partnerships and initiatives that will help Ugandan content compete both locally and internationally, positioning the country as a prime destination for film production. It also promises mentorship programmes and masterclasses designed to equip both emerging and established producers with skills aligned with global industry standards, with special attention to capacity-building for young producers.

“We want to grow many more young film producers so that any film that comes out of the country today and goes out there actually says something about us,” says Nabwiso, President of the National Producers Guild of Uganda. “Today, when you fly with Uganda Airlines, there are maybe two or three Ugandan films available, but when you look at their quality, it is very, very embarrassing.”

The guild also plans to work with broadcasters, streamers, creatives and government agencies, while lobbying for improved policies, tax incentives and stronger IP protection. It is also seeking production funding from financial and grant institutions and aims to promote Ugandan talent at international festivals and trade events.

Unlike many previous guilds, the Producers Guild is receiving considerable support. Since its launch, it has recruited over 100 members. Many filmmakers have expressed enthusiasm for its initiatives, including filmmaking workshops. They see this as the beginning of real progress. For cinematographer David Mukama, distribution is the highlight of these workshops. “Let’s prepare our films to reach audiences that do not yet have access to this content,” he says.

From these initiatives and future plans, the Producers’ Guild appears to be playing all the right cards while working to build real influence and power. If successful, it could stand the test of time and avoid the challenges that have plagued many before it, including the ever-present, gnawing issue of exploitation within the industry.

“We have set up rules and regulations, and a code of conduct to punish producers who are operating without integrity,” says Kizito Samuel Saviour, the guild’s Deputy General Secretary. “If an actor or crew member has an issue with a producer, they report to their respective guild, and that guild reaches out to us.”

Despite its ambitions, some industry observers, including arts and culture journalist Andrew Kaggwa Mayiga, have raised concerns about how the Producers Guild, and guilds in general, conduct their operations, arguing that they often lack clear priorities.

“I am failing to see what they are fronting as their main objective at the moment,” Kaggwa says. “When I listen to Mathew, the Producers Guild President, he talks about many things, and from my experience, that can fail you. I wish they could start with one thing, push it to the end, then begin another.”

The responsibility for reforming the industry does not rest with the Producers Guild alone. Following the producers’ lead, Ugandan screenwriters have also organised to form their own guild. The aim of the Screenwriters Guild of Uganda, according to Ampaire Daphine, is to “recognise, organise, and empower screenwriters.”

“We want to streamline the system to ensure that contractual obligations are clear, that writers are confident, they are paid fairly, and they feel valued,” says Ampaire. “Writers are also significantly underrepresented in policy-making, and we want to be part of that conversation.”

The Screenwriters Guild has so far registered over 500 screenwriters across the country. Unlike their counterparts in the Producers’ Guild, however, they appear to be moving at a slower, more deliberate pace. According to Communications Director Cissy Nalumansi, their long-term plans include establishing a National Screenwriting Institute dedicated to formalising and advancing the craft, as well as creating regional screenwriting hubs.

Another crucial organisation that has emerged since 2025 is the Filmmakers SACCO, which, according to its five-year strategic plan, aims to mobilise and invest over UGX 1.5 billion in financial resources and build a loan portfolio of UGX 1.2 billion. SACCO President Brenda Kabamba says the goal is to “strengthen the financial backbone of the local film industry.”

More groups are organising, including the Costume Designers Guild of Uganda; the Screen Actors Guild of Uganda; the Sound Engineers Guild, and associations representing makeup artists. The Producers’ Guild has expressed interest in working with these bodies to help create a more streamlined and professional industry.

While the intention to reform the industry is much welcomed, this renewed momentum around guilds does not come without risks. One of the most immediate challenges they are likely to face is industry politics. With multiple guilds emerging across nearly every department, there is a real danger of accelerating fragmentation, as different groups pursue their own agendas or compete against each other. The long-standing “uptown” and “downtown” divide is also likely to deepen, given the largely self-selective nature of these guilds. Rather than unifying the industry, the rapid formation of new bodies could weaken its collective voice or lead to the marginalisation of certain groups.

Complicating matters further is the fact that one of the industry’s key regulators, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), has found itself uncomfortably intertwined with several of the newly formed guilds. This closeness, industry insiders worry, could make it difficult for guilds to push back should the regulator take positions that are unfriendly, or even harmful, to the film community. While the Commission has publicly championed the rise of these guilds and offered support along the way – a gesture that on the surface, signals alignment – it raises questions on what the guilds’ independence will look like in the years ahead.

These concerns aren’t without precedent. In 2019, the UCC backed two controversial policies that many creators viewed as a death knell for the arts sector: the Stage Play and Public Entertainment Rules 2019 and the Uganda Communications (Film, Documentaries and Commercial Still Photography) Regulations 2019. The latter, in particular, struck directly at the heart of the film industry by altering how films could be made, distributed and monetised in Uganda by placing direct regulatory control over the entire creative pipeline under the UCC. Though these rules are not aggressively enforced today, they effectively tightened the noose around filmmakers, layering the creative process with a maze of licences and bureaucratic bottlenecks, and imposed a level of scrutiny that many felt stifled creativity rather than safeguarding it.

As the regulatory body for the film industry, the Uganda Communications Commission wields significant power. It will therefore be very difficult for the new guilds to resist the temptation to cozy up to it. Outside of regulations, the UCC holds a lot of influence as the organizer of the biggest film award ceremony in the country- the Uganda Film Festival – where it provides prize money to winners.

It also funds productions through its Content Development Support Programme, and maintains close ties with broadcasters and telecommunications companies, further entrenching its influence across the ecosystem.

Attempts to challenge this authority have so far failed. Last year’s effort by Pearlwood, the umbrella body representing several guilds, to boycott the Uganda Film Festival over UCC’s failure to adequately regulate broadcasters’ content fell flat. Filmmakers turned up in large numbers, and the event proceeded as planned, underscoring just how difficult it is to mobilise collective resistance.

But make no mistake, none of this diminishes the fact that the move to formalise and professionalise Uganda’s film industry was long overdue. There is broad consensus that organising the sector is a necessary step forward. Structured systems create space for growth and provide the industry with clearer channels to articulate its needs and challenges to decision-makers.

If the new guilds and associations succeed in delivering on their promises, the impact would be significant. We could see better-made films, increased production, and a stronger creative economy overall. Long-standing issues such as the exploitation of actors and crew would also be easier to address because for the first time, there would be defined systems of accountability.

So, will these new guilds actually transform Uganda’s film industry? For now, as the industry heads into 2026, the answer remains the same: it is still too early to tell.

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