by Funke Osae-Brown.

In this interview, Chioma Ude, Founder/CEO, Africa International Film Festival, tells FUNKE OSAE-BROWN the importance of film festival to the growth and development of the Nigerian film industry.

There is no other reason for relocating the festival to Lagos this year than the fact that AFRIFF is designed to be a travelling festival. It is not stationary. It could be back in Port Harcourt next year. It could be in Bayelsa or any other state years afterward.

The fact is that it is a festival that was designed to be mobile. We are considering whether it should be stationary or not. For now, it is something we are discussing but I think one of the things we want to achieve is to ensure that it is a festival that moves within the continent. The issue for me should not be about relocation of venue from Rivers State to Lagos but rather should be about what we are doing to make this year’s festival a unique one. This year’s festival is very concentrated on theme song. I think that is one of the main issues. We have done a lot on workshop, conferences concerning the event and people are going to come and watch.

Read the rest of this article from Business Day Online.

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by Nnamdi Ojiego.

Ace broadcaster and member of the Federal House of Representatives, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, shocked the press and industry operators alike last week, when she took on Nollywood.

She stated that most of the movies churned out of the industry lacked technical depths, especially when the films are compared to other films produced in the developed countries.

Erewa who was one of the special guests at a press parley to announce the commencement of this year’s film making workshop organised by the Del-York International in partnership with the New York Film Academy, NYFA, stated that film making was all about quality.

Read the rest of this article from VanguardNGR.

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by Akintayo Abodunrin.

As filmmakers salivate over the federal government’s $200 million low interest entertainment intervention fund, arts promoter, Tope Babayemi, has criticised the initiative.

President Goodluck Jonathan announced the intervention in aid of the industry earlier this year at the 30th anniversary of the Silverbird Group; the money has been released to the Nigerian Export-Import (NEXIM) Bank to disburse to movie producers who meet stipulated criteria.

“I am not happy with the president’s intervention because it does not reflect deep understanding of the place of the entertainment industry in the overall creative economy of Nigeria,” Babayemi noted in an interview

He argued that since entertainment, leisure, and recreation are enterprise driven, what is needed is “more effective government regulation, not handouts; effective government regulation that respects intellectual property rights.”

Read the rest of this article from Next.

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by Adedayo Odulaja.

Vivian Ejike is a notable name in the Nigerian Film Industry, popularly known as Nollywood. As a producer of repute, many Nigerians, especially all those who have anything to do with Nollywood, fondly place her as a young woman who is already standing tall in the industry despite her few years in the industry of light, camera and action and one that is dominated by men.

Like the award-winning movies she has produced, talking to or with her is a treasured experience because her confidence, professional mindset as well as her deep knowledge about the industry she operates are some of the virtues one would notice in such a discussion.

Vivian, a major contributor to what is now referred to as the refined thinking in Nollywood, some of the things that make up a good movie is one question she did not waste much time to answer.

Read the rest of this article from Daily Independent.

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Many International Organizations have started joining 4th International Festival Of Cellphone Cinema

INFA Indo Nigerian Film Association has agreed to support the forthcoming 4th International Festival of Cellphone Cinema fixed for 14th and 15th of January 2011 at Noida Film City.

“It is a very unique kind of festival where we expect film maker to use mobile phone camera to shoot his film” said Sandeep Marwah President of the 4th IFCC “ we want to promote the sense of film making and instance response within masses to something different which is happening around you” Marwah added.

Read the rest of this Press Release.

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by Patrick J. Ebewo.

MOTION PICTURES WERE REPORTEDLY FIRST SCREENED IN NIGERIA in August of 1903, when Nigerian nationalist Herbert Macaulay, in association with the Balboa film company of Spain, introduced the new medium to an audience assembled in Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos (Owens-Ibie).

Over five decades later, the first film production companies, Latola Film (founded in 1962) and Calpeny Nigeria Limited (1970), were established in Nigeria(Amobi). In addition to Latola and Calpeny, members of the Nigerian theater community promoted film culture as well. In fact, the current video film industry in Nigeria owes a huge debt to the pioneers of Nigerian theater, particularly practitioners of the Yoruba Traveling Theater, who branched off from mainstream theater to experiment with celluloid.

Read the rest of this article from Real Film Career.

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This article was written by Franco Sacchi.

“The 18 year-old, $250 million Nigerian film industry produces some 2,000 movies a year—a number that puts Lagos in a league with Mumbai and Los Angeles. But in Nollywood, unlike Bollywood or Hollywood, movies can cost as little as $10,000 to make and take barely a week to shoot.

The films are straight-to-VCR, VCD or DVD and cost around $1.60 a piece, though they can be rented for a fifth of that price and are also shown on satellite television. While their quality of acting and production may appear lacking when compared to the products of other film industries, Nollywood movies are avidly consumed throughout Nigeria, across Africa and beyond.”

Read the rest of this article from World Policy.

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This article was written for Nigerian Music Nigeria.

“U.S Filmmakers Bart Weiss and Kim Snyder were recently in Nigeria to attend an American Documentary Showcase organised by the public affairs section of the US Consulate in Lagos and the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers.

In his opening remarks, Bart Weiss, an award winning independent film producer and founder of the Dallas Video Festival, introduced the audience to various techniques of making a documentary, with emphasis on cinéma vérité. Defining the term as ‘a film of truth’, Weiss said, “It involves a camera man following his subject in real life rather than constructing images. The crew follows things as they evolve. It helps you experience the emotion because everything is not based on the imagination of the director”.

Read the rest of this article from Nigerian Music Movement.

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This article was written by Tony Iwuoma.

“For over 30 years, Mr. Adenuga had held Nigerians spellbound with his hilarious productions on television or on the pages of magazines. He has endeared himself to Nigerians who have come to rely on his witty productions as antidote to crisis in the polity. In fact, to underscore his relevance and contributions, an appreciative nation had given him the national honour of the Member of the Federal Republic, MFR.

Yet Adenuga is not yet done. In this interview, the master humourist, passes Nollywood, Nigeria’s film brand, under his telescope and came out with a damning verdict. The good news, however, is that his company, Wale Adenuga Productions, has immediate plans to take the industry by storm through production of real films since 1984 when he produced the last film. The interview is quite revealing and shows the serious side of Adenuga, who is known for humour.”

Read the rest of this article from Sun News Online.

This article was written for Shrinkfish.

“In 2009, the UN cultural organisation UNESCO, said that the Nigerian film making industry known as Nollywood was now the second-biggest film industry in the world thus pushing it one more rung up the ladder from the statistics of the previous year. Despite that, one can legitimately ask: “Where is Animation?”

Read the rest of this article from PR Log.