LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT ENDORSES EKO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL “NIGERIA’S LEADING FILM FESTIVAL”.

The annual Eko International Film Festival has been officially endorsed by the Lagos State Government. The Film Festival is currently on her 4^th edition coming up 18-23 November, 2013. This year’s Eko International Film Festival theme is: 

Nollywood in the Global Film Market

Hope Obioma Opara

President /CEO Eko International Film Festival

Receiving the endorsement from the Ministry of Tourism and Inter governmental affairs.

The President of  Eko International Film Festival Mr. Hope Obioma Opara expressed his appreciation over the endorsement and pledged to work with his team in realizing this dream of building a big film festival in this mega city of Lagos. He stated that there is no way a film festival can be well recognized at the global level without the endorsement and support from the host state and the country at large, because film festival outside the direct film business is a platform that can be used to explore the tourism potentials of a country and bring in direct investment to the state and the country in general. In his interaction with Barr Mrs A.A Agbamiloja, who represented the Commissioner for Tourism and Intergovernmental Relations, he assured the government that the next level is to bring the world film market to Lagos. Having the backing of the host state is a mile stone in establishing an international film festival in every city of the world.

                              Yinka Akanbi(Festival Director Ekoiff)

The Objectives of the film festival:

Seeks to raise the standards and quality of the Nigerian film industry to the extent that it elevates the industry to world class status.

To put Lagos and Nigeria on the world map as an international center for arts and global film market.

Promote the country’s economy and tourism potential by creating opportunities for international co-productions and distribution, thus bringing the world film market to Nigeria.

The benefits of Eko International Film Festival would be immense from the attraction of local and foreign investments and the attraction of international tourists to the tourist destinations in Lagos.

Currently submissions are being received from different countries like Iran, Serbia, Holland, South Africa, Germany, France, Spain, United Kingdom, USA, Nigeria and Nigerians in Diaspora and we are still receiving till October 15, 2013.

Hope Obioma Opara

President

Eko International Film Festival

For interviews, Sponsorship enquiries

Contact: +234 803 303 6171

Email:contact@ekoiff.org

HALF OF A YELLOW SUN OFFICIAL SELECTION tiff

The Toronto International Film Festival announced the first selections this week, including Biyi Bandele’s Half of a Yellow Sun. Based on the novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the story follows the lives of two sisters during the Nigerian-Biafran War. The film stars Thandie Newton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anika Noni Rose, and Joseph Mawle and will have its world premiere at the festival.

WHY MOPPICON MAY NOT BE THE ANSWER TO NOLLYWOOD’S PALAVER

With the ascendancy of a new helmsman at the Nigeria Film Corporation (NFC), the clamour for the Motion Picture Practitioners Council of Nigeria (MOPPICON) has been renewed by job seekers and movie politicians once again.

Like the biblical children of Israel who pestered God, that they wanted a king like other nations, till He succumbed, I am afraid this too may come to pass.

The argument has been that MOPPICON has become an all-comers affair hence it needs to be regulated. The belief has been there are a lot of charlatans in it. Since other professions like advertising, in recent times, have a practitioners’ council why not the motion picture industry?

In these days of Orosanye’s report on how to streamline government agencies, I wonder what this will all translate to.

My argument is that you cannot regulate creativity. It is a product of unusual thinking by unusual people. If the music industry was to be regulated today, all the Wizkids of this world who have no formal schooling in music would never have a chance. Imagine how boring radio and TV would be. Even most musicians abroad would not have a chance. There would never have been a Nollywood today if it were left only to film school graduates and theatre arts graduates (who make the loudest noise about being professionals and consider others charlatans).

Do not get me wrong, I believe in film training and in fact own the oldest and one of the most credible film training institutions in Nigeria, but I also recognise that with a Nigerian Film Corporation, the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) and the National Broadcasting Commission, any other body to regulate the Motion Picture industry is just a waste of time.

There are better things to worry about, setting up a viable Film Fund pool for practitioners to draw from, for instance. Reducing tariffs on film equipment to lower cost of production, building more cinema houses to help distribution and signing co-production treaties with other countries amongst others.

I think the guilds should be strengthened and regulated by the NFC and the guild heads can constitute a body that meets with government and the film corporation to discuss industry problems from time to time.

The words ‘motion picture practitioners’ is so wide it captures everything in moving pictures and this includes our young and incredibly talented music video producers who produce far higher quality work than those in Nollywood and who are presently quietly minding their business. Do we want to emasculate these young talents? Many of them learnt film from the Internet and from watching films and musical videos on TV. There is no way of knowing what they are capable of if a bunch of old school film makers have to decide whether or not they qualify as film makers.

No one regulates writers, no one regulates painters, no one regulates music, no one regulates dancers, no one should therefore regulate film making. It is an art form and if people do not like what you do you will soon find something else to do. Simple as that!

I expect my colleagues who are angling for seats on the council to throw stones at me for this but I think the government and Nigerian people deserve to know the truth. We do not need a body like the lawyers to decide who gets a SAN and who does not. Let the jobs speak. Let the public decide who a film maker is not, a bunch of out of job rent seekers.

Let the missiles roll. Let the debate begin....

By: Victor Okhai

SUBMISSION OF FILMS FOR 4TH EKOIFF