Creative Industry

Athen Set To Host Leading Global Change Nollywood Travel FilmFest In May

Published

2 years ago

April 3, 2023

Joel Ajayi

One of Nigeria’s biggest, leading travel film festival organizations, the Nollywood Travel Film Festival NTFF, that is promoting cultural diplomacy and cultural exchange amongst the countries of the world is set to hit the City of Athen in Greece for the second edition of the festival from May 7th to May 14 this year.

NTFF is an initiative that seeks to promote films by Nigerians living across the globe to new and existing global audiences with the aim of creating new market places for Nigerian cinema.

Greek Capital City Athen was garnering a reputation as a pleasant tourist destination, “with its rich cultural mix, beautiful sights with over 6,000 finest highland, the one many adjudged to be the highest in the world.

Nollywood Travel Film Festival (NTFF) is a project of the Pan-African Film Development Foundation, a Nigerian non-profit organization established to support and give a platform to hardworking African independent filmmakers to showcase their work on a global scale.

In the world press conference held in Abuja on Monday, the NTFF founder, Mykel Parish, said that NTFF Team has perfected all the needed plans to have the best, impactful second edition of the festival.

According to him, I am excited to share a ground-breaking event for Nigerian Cinema and our plans to host the 2nd edition of the Nollywood Travel Film Festival in Athens, Greece, from 7th to 14th May 2023.

“We are excited to be returning to Athens, Greece after the successful 2022 edition. The vision is to provide a platform for Nollywood films to be screened to people from other races, cultures and backgrounds and we are glad that we have been able to achieve that and much more especially providing the much needed link between Nollywood and other industries.

“Since 2017, Nollywood Travel Film Festival has hosted screenings in Toronto, Atlanta, Hamburg, Oslo, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Lima, London, and Glasgow. The festival’s focus is to screen Nollywood films that would not typically be shown in Diaspora and create new opportunities for the industry. The previous editions of NTFF attracted more than 3,500 filmmakers, fans, distributors, and marketers globally.

“Our next edition will see us establishing the Greece- Nigeria Annual Film week to explore film culture, food culture, tourism, and music.

“The film week will first advance the people-to-people relations between Nigeria and Greece to promote a sustainable audiovisual partnership.

“The Greece Nigeria Film Week will be incorporated into the Nollywood Travel Film Festival.

“We will create a platform for collaboration between Nigerian and Greek producers. Nigerian producers are the most prolific on the African continent with more commissioned projects by Netflix, Amazon, and Disney in the Middle East and the African region.”

While itemizing the programme of events for this year’s edition of festival, Parish revealed that; “NTFF will showcase six movies from Nigeria and two from Greece, depicting the lives of the people of both countries. There will also be a series of short films screened during the opening night.

“Also, Seminars/Workshops Film Colloquium, will focus on discussions/interactions on collaborations in the creative sector between Greece and Nigeria, particularly on how to activate a co-production MoU for both countries. While there will be a City of Athens tour, parties and merriments.”

Speaking on the overall objective of the festival, Founder of NTFF, Parish, explained that the Collaboration between Greece and Nigeria’s Screen industry will facilitate film and high-end TV Co-production between the two countries. Launch Greece.

“Its also going to bring establishment of a film market that will bring together content providers, stakeholders, and investors from both countries to discuss possibilities of collaboration and investment opportunities throughout the value chain of the film industry.

“As well as to create job opportunities for the youth of both countries through cultural exchange, and inward investment for film and high-end TV production in both countries.

In his remark, the Greece Ambassador to Nigeria Yiannis Plotas applauded the NTFF efforts to connect the two film industries, saying Promotion of Cultural exchanges between Nigerians and Greeks remain a priority for the embassy.

According to him, the Film industry plays a significant role bringing the cultures of different countries together.

“It is within this framework that Greece will host the second Nigeria -Greece Film Festival which will take place in Athens from 7 until 14th of May.

“We are very pleased that the engagements and cooperation between the Greek and Nigerian film industry are deepening, and we look forward to this May edition of the NTFF.

“I would like to praise you for this kind of initiative, and we reassure you that the embassy will always be here to help, to give a boost not only to our country but in general to strengthen our bilateral relations. The essential ingredient for that is the cultural ties between our countries.” He said.

Also speaking was the President of the Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN) Dr. Victor Okhai expressed that the travel film festival initiative has demonstrated a great sense of diplomacy between the two Countries.

“This is the best time and we are happy it’s happening in our time. Greece is the center of culture that is why we key-in into the festival and see how we can make it stronger and better.”

However, the Greece Nigeria Film Awards Night: Awards will be recognized in the following categories; Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Short Film, Best Online content creator and Best Cinematography.

Others awards are best editor, best Picture, best director and best producer.

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Creative Industry

Stephanie Linus, Juliet Ibrahim 8 others Appointed Jury Members For Zuma International Film Festival

Published

1 month ago

November 13, 2024

The Gleamer

Joel Ajayi

Ten-member 10 jury of reputable Nigerian and foreign filmmakers to adjudicate on all entries in the competitive category of the Zuma international film festival, 2024, scheduled to hold in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital from December 1st to 5th, which is jointly being organized by the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) and the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has been announced.

Announcing the constitution of the ten-member jury through a statement issued in Abuja (on Monday, November, 11, 2024); Brian Etuk, NFC’s Director of Public Affairs, said “the jury is most critical to the selection of winning entries and composition of the jury reflects the premium and niche of ZUMA International Film Festival, as one of the continents fastest growing international film festivals and market events”.

He said, this explains why membership of the jury includes both Nigerian and foreign film stakeholders who have in the recent past promoted authentic Nigerian and African resonate stories, and continue to contribute immensely to the growth of inclusive global film production.

Stephanie Okereke Linus, an A-list Nigerian actress, filmmaker, activist with lead appearances in over 100 movies, including an Afro-Hollywood, USA Filmmakers Award for Excellence, Reel Awards for Best Actress, and recently, the AMVCA Award for Best Overall Movie in Africa as well as recipient of the AMAA Award for Best Nigerian Film for her impactful work DRY was named as the Chairperson of the Jury.

Other members are Kenneth Gyang- director of This Is Lagos, Mojisola as well as Oloture Netflix’s Original from Nigeria; Aisha Halilu Abdullahi – a docu-drama and documentary specialist; Ishaq Sidi Ishaq – an actor, writer and producer of “Kamilu”,‘‘Wasila’’; Charles Novia – an avant-garde Nollywood ﬁlmmaker, scriptwriter, producer, director and creative entrepreneur; Hakeem Kae Kazim – a supremely talented actor, producer, director of great cinematic portrayal of George Rutugunda in the Oscar-nominated Hotel Rwanda, as well as playing leading roles in The Librarian.

The Triangle, and knack for creating feisty and deeply thrilling characters; Sihle Hlophe – director with multiple awards and over 15 years of experience; Ronya Man – an acting coach and creative arts specialist with handles on Lahira, SIN.

The Johnsons, as well as Juliet Ibrahim – a bilingual (French and English) speaking multiple award-wining producer, director, entrepreneur with over 100 movie appearances. Zaiyanu Tanko Waziri, a veteran filmmaker and broadcaster with over two decades of professional experience was also named as member of the jury.

In the statement, Dr. Ali Nuhu, NFC’s Managing Director & Chairman, Festival Organising Committee, on behalf of its partner, the FCTA, congratulated Stephanie Okereke – Linus for emerging as Chairperson of the Jury. Dr. Nuhu said that the Jury Chairperson and her team’s roles are critical to the overall success of the Film Festival brand, which no effort has been spared in its organization in terms of content, attendance and participation. NFC; Nuhu averred, remains committed to achieving the objectives of sustaining the positive narratives that Nigeria with a huge creative economy, is indeed the hub of film production in Africa.

Zuma International Film Festival 2024, the 14th in the series and themed: Digital Renaissance: Embracing The Future takes place December 1st – 5th at Chida Event Centre, Abuja Nigeria. Meanwhile, Etuk added that the online registration portal of the film festival has opened, and intending participants can register through the link :- https://zumafilmfest.com/zuff-2024-registration.

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