Encomium
CEO of AFRIFF, Chioma Ude has revealed the reason Nigerian movies are yet to get much recognition from global film awards and festivals.
She revealed this while speaking as a panelist at the Nigerian Entertainment Conference alongside Wunmi Obe, Femi Falodun and Theo Lawson.
According to her, the major reason is because most of the movies do not have as much local language content as required to enter the Foreign Film categories at most of the world’s biggest award shows.
‘We need to understand what this category is about and the criteria for entry. Movies in this category are expected to have rich cultural elements which must reflect in the language, story, music and all other elements present in the film. Although, things are getting better now, as Nollywood got an invitation from the Oscars last year, and hopefully will get a slot soon. The right film must have at least 51% local language content to be accepted into the Foreign Language Film category.’
Speaking for the music industry, recording artiste Wunmi Obe explained that the same reason is why only the likes of Sunny Ade, Femi Kuti, Angelique Kidjo are the ones who usually get nominated for the Grammys.
‘These people are very African in their sounds and lyrics, and that is what is required for that category.’ she said.
Femi Falodun, COO of ID Africa advocated for the use of the digital space, which he says, guarantees a wider reach as the world presently lives on the internet. He cited the cases of how the Internet has changed music distribution in the country and how it is beginning to do same for the movies.
‘The Internet has for a while now, proven to be a dependable platform for distribution, one that content providers can harness for their benefit’, he said.
The session was moderated by MTV VJ, Ehiz Okoeguale and had CEO of Total Consult, Theo Lawson, Falodun, Ude and Obe as panelists.
The conference is an annual event organized by NET Newspaper. It debuted in 2013 and has since risen to become one of the most anticipated conferences in the country with thousands of guests attending all its editions.
