Nollywood and the French Connection

NOLLYWOOD

Nollywood and The French Connection

Before the Nigerian government started supporting Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry with grants from the Project Act Nollywood and the NollyFund of the Bank of Industry (BoI), the French government through the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported the film and TV productions of selected Nigerian filmmakers. The French Audio Visual Attaché in Nigeria (2002-2006), Monsieur Pierre Barrot authored one of the first books on the phenomenon of Nollywood, "Nollywood: The Video Phenomenon in Nigeria" published by the Indiana University Press in 2009.

One of films sponsored by the French government, "Eternal" by Chike Ibekwe won the best film award (Ecrans Dór) at the 14th edition of Ecrans Noir Film Festival in  2010 in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Another outstanding film produced with the support of  Fonds images Afrique of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs was "Changing Faces";by Faruk Lasaki,  the first Nigerian film to be dubbed into French and broadcast by Canal France International in 2009 to all television channels in French-speaking Africa under the title "La Métamorphose".

Nigerian Films and TV series projects which benefitted from French production funding and were fully completed.

Projet	Producteur ou réalisateur	Genre	Aide accordée	Origine	Année
Our husband has gone mad again	Albert Egbe	TV Series (13 x 26 minutes)	40 000 euros	Fonds Images Afrique	2003
The Virgin ?	Tunde Kelani	TV Series	35 000 euros	Fonds Images Afrique	2003
Claws of the lion	Francis Onwochei	Feature Film	30 000 euros	Fonds Images Afrique	2004
Tides of Fate	Greg Odutayo	TV Series	40 000 euros	Fonds Images Afrique	2005
Eternal	Chikeh Ibekwe	Feature Film	40 000 euros	Fonds Images Afrique	2005
The Head of State	Jimi Odumosu		45 000 euros	Fonds Images Afrique	2005
Changing Faces	Faruk Lasaki		60 000 euros	Fonds Images Afrique	2005
Off Campus	Chikeh Ibekwe		35 000 euros	Fonds Images Afrique	2005
Relentless	Andy Amadi Okoroafor		Aide réécriture   100 000 euros	Fonds Images Afrique	2005     2006

 

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima

Publisher/Editor

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series