Merry Christmas To You and Your Family

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2025 

With all the thanksgivings to Almighty God for the best going forward to higher grounds of greater heights of triumph and Victory in the mighty name of our Lord JESUS Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.

AMEN.

#God

#holidays

#Jesus

#christmas

#xmas 

#merrychristmas 

#newyear

#2025

Mati Diop's "Dahomey" Shortlisted for Two Academy Awards

Multiple award winning Senegalese  filmmaker, Mati Diop has made history by becoming the first filmmaker from Senegal and Africa to have a film shortlisted in two different categories for the highly coveted annual 97th Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars.

Her critically acclaimed documentary film,  "Dahomey" has been shortlisted for both the Documentary Feature Category and Best International Feature Film Category,  making Diop the first African filmmaker to have a film shortlisted for two Oscars.

 "Dahomey" won the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival.

Oscar Shortlist 2025: 

International Feature Film

I'm Still Here, Brazil

Universal Language, Canada

Waves, Czech Republic

The Girl with the Needle, Denmark

Emilia Pérez, France

The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Germany

Touch, Iceland

Kneecap, Ireland

Vermiglio, Italy

Flow, Latvia

Armand, Norway

From Ground Zero, Palestine

Dahomey, Senegal

How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies, Thailand

Santosh, United Kingdom

Documentary Feature Film

The Bibi Files

Black Box Diaries

Dahomey

Daughters

Eno

Frida

Hollywoodgate

No Other Land

Porcelain War

Queendom

The Remarkable life of Ibelin

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

Sugarcane

Union

Will & Harper

Season's Greetings From The Entire IBC Team

Season's Greetings From The Entire IBC Team

WOLE SOYINKA - ENI OGUN, An Accomplished Biopic on the First African Nobel Laureate of Literature

WOLE SOYINKA - ENI OGUN, An Accomplished Biopic on the First African Nobel Laureate of Literature

Joshua Ojo with Prof. Wole Soyinka.

Joshua Ojo's vivid biopic, "WOLE SOYINKA - ENI OGUN"is an outstanding historical film on the phenomenal life of the most lionized African writer, Prof. Wole Soyinka, the first African winner of the highly coveted Nobel Prize for Literature. 

This is the only one of the few films on the life of Soyinka to capture the essence of the spirit of the art and persona of his iconic genius in motion picture. And the first to be produced in his beloved mother tongue of the Yoruba language. The biopic produced to celebrate his 90th birthday is a must see and the film has been authorized by the Nobel laureate.

Official trailer

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m_nA7r4CH50FjxHdNlvaixNv5F44GQI3/view?usp=drivesdk

It chronicled his trials as a fearless sociopolitical human rights activist and triumphs as an intellectual luminary of the literary world with critically acclaimed books of poetry, drama and prose for which he became famous and awarded the Nobel Prize in  Literature in 1986 for with his writings, Soyinka "in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence."

The cinematic beauty of the film with outstanding portrayal of Soyinka by the award winning Nigerian actor, Lateef Adedimeji and other accomplished actors, including Jide Kosoko, Femi Branch, Segun Arinze, Dele Odule, Funky Mallam, Haffiz Oyetoro, Bimbo Oshin, Joke Muyiwa and Olaiya Igwe showed the accomplishments of the director in the art direction with the production design, casting, characterisation, cinematography and soundtracks based on the historical facts of the celebrated author with important emphasis on Ibadan and other locations of his life and the political circumstances of his imprisonment in the Kirikiri Prison for 22 months during the Nigerian-Biafran war from 1967-1970.

"This is my most challenging film production so far. Because of the historical importance and significance of the legacy of Prof. Wole Soyinka, I have to make sure of the accuracy of the sets used for the period in the history of Nigeria. KIRI-KIRI PRISON was built from the scratch in the studios. Soyinka's house was equally built with over 98 percent of the set built by the crew, except for the scenes of the roads and the other scenes shot outside Nigeria," the director said.

"I did the casting myself, because I really wanted actors to look like the real characters in his life. For the production design, I took my time as well to draw and sketch out how I wanted them to look and the guys in that department brought life to it.

I've been to Soyinka's house, so it was easy for me to recreate it."

"I had an accident two days to shoot. I was given two options: either to cut off my right leg or I do an emergency surgery, which I did. And I went back to location a week after the surgery, with an ambulance on stand by everyday. I'll shoot for 2 to 3 days and rush back to the hospital for check-up. That was how we shot for two months to complete the principal photography."

The film certainly is an outstanding achievement in filmmaking in Nollywood and African Cinema. It will attract millions of Yorubas in Nigeria and the Diaspora; especially in Brazil where hundreds of thousands of people are devotees of the Yoruba OGUN traditional religion which Soyinka has celebrated in his life and works. Millions of others who have read his popular plays, novels and essays will be anxious and curious to watch the film subtitled in English and should be widely available in other popular languages for the global distribution.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

The Publisher/Editor,

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,

The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

#soyinka

#biopic

#life

#birthday

#wolesoyinka

#nobellaureate

#nobelprize

#literature

#writer

#author

#joshuaojo

#joshua

#filmmaker

#filmmaking

#yoruba

#brazil

#ogun

#religion

#art

#books

#travel

#history

#drama

#nollywood

#nigeria

#biafra

#war

#prison

#ibadan

#humanrights

#africa

The Top Contenders of The Best International Feature Film Oscar 2025 from Africa

 

The Top Contenders of The Best International Feature Film Oscar 2025 from Africa

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michaelchimaeyerengozi_oscars-oscars2025-academyawards-activity-7265999814826348544-FNmD?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android

Oscars international feature race 2025 guide: the contenders from Africa and the Middle East

BY BEN DALTON

Two spots on the Oscars shortlist of 15 last year for African and Middle East countries represented a modest improvement on recent years — but entries this year are down. Screen surveys a region that has made halting progress.

Africa

After 11 entries for last year’s award — just one down on the record of 12 from 2021 — African submissions for the 2025 international feature Oscar have dropped to nine. It is now four years since Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin made it all the way to awards night for Tunisia — the only title to do so since 2015. For comparison, over the past nine years, there have been 29 European nominees, 11 from Asia-Pacific and four from the Americas region.

The paucity of African titles at Oscar’s international feature shortlist stage suggests the problem starts early in the process, especially for sub-Saharan Africa. Ben Hania’s Four Daughters for Tunisia and Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother Of All Lies for Morocco both made it to the shortlist of 15 films last time around, but Maryam Touzani’s The Blue Caftan for Morocco was the only African selection for 2023, and there were none for 2022. No Black director has ever won the Academy’s international feature film award.

Golden tickets

Mati Diop’s documentary Dahomey, representing Senegal, offers the best chance of breaking that barrier. The Berlinale Golden Bear winner dramatises the return of 26 royal treasures from France to the Kingdom of Dahomey (in modern-day Benin). Backing from Mubi in territories including North America and UK-Ireland should guarantee it visibility. Two previous Golden Bear winners have gone on to take the international feature Oscar: Vittorio de Sica’s The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis for Italy in 1972, and Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation — also the winner of Bafta’s equivalent award — for Iran in 2012. It is French director Diop’s second time representing Senegal, after Atlantics made the shortlist for 2020 but missed out on a nomination.

Read the report on 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michaelchimaeyerengozi_oscars-oscars2025-academyawards-activity-7265999814826348544-FNmD?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android

Effective Content Marketing in Nigeria Must Target the Gen Z

Effective Content Marketing in Nigeria Must Target the Gen Z

You cannot do effective content marketing if you are ignorant of the demographics of your target audience.

The target audience for online entertainment, e-commerce and fintech industry are the Generation Z, or Gen Z of people born between 1995 and 2010. The 'Z' in the name means "zoomer", as this is the first generation known to 'zoom' the internet.

Majority of them make up the population of 65 million Nigerians using social media platforms.

They spend $975m daily on online betting.

Data from the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF) has revealed that over 65 million Nigerians actively engage in betting, spending an average of $15 daily. This is just as it disclosed that everyday, 14 million bet takes and payments are made online in the country.

According to one of the fast rising upwardly mobile Nigerian Gen Z techies, Benjamin Unah, Co-Founder & Chairman - Primeries

https://primeries.com/, the #1

 streetwear marketplace that connecting shoppers to the hardest streetwear brands and creatives in Africa, "they are the most active shoppers online and subscribers of entertainment providers for streaming music and movies."

According to the report on Understanding the Gen Z in Nigeria: Trends and Insights - Sagaci Research

"Trends among the Gen Z in Nigeria: more likely to go to physical shops and use cash
Male Nigerian consumers aged 18-25 exhibit different shopping behaviours compared to older ones. A significant 58% of them would rather go to a shop than buying products online versus 47% of the older group. This result stems from young people’s preference for a physical experience; they want to visit stores, see the product firsthand, and make their choice in person. Additionally, 26% of these younger consumers prefer using cash, a higher percentage than the 16% observed in the 26+ demographic.

In contrast, older consumers are more inclined to use debit cards, with 41% opting for this payment method compared to 29% of the younger age group. Following recent banking issues in Nigeria, younger people now prefer to keep physical cash on hand for added security and to avoid potential problems.

Read the complete report on 
https://sagaciresearch.com/gen-z-nigeria-insights/
"
.

The Road Map for the Nominations for the Annual Academy Awards for Nigerian Filmmakers

The Road Map for the Nominations for the Annual Academy Awards for Nigerian Filmmakers

There is a Road Map for the Nominations for the annual Academy Awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and the route is common knowledge to those who truly know the criteria for filmmaking of international standards in the quality of the content and context of filmmaking and the benchmarks of the most coveted international awards and prizes for filmmaking.

Making the nominations for the almighty Oscars from the long list to the short list is beyond the mere selections of the official entries for different countries in the competition for the Best International Feature Film Category of the Academy Awards which is the most competitive, because of the challenges of competing with the best filmmakers from other countries you may not know their works.

In my own opinion, any film that has not made the Official Selections for the annual Cannes Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival should not be the official selection of Nigeria for the Best International Feature Film Category of the Academy Awards. Because in the history of the Oscars,most of the nominees and winners were in the Official Selections of the most highly esteemed and highest ranking international film festivals as I have listed them above. And only the majority of them that won the Palme d'Or of the Cannes Film Festival, Golden Lion and Silver Lion of the Venice International Film Festival, Audience Award of the Toronto International Film Festival, Golden or Silver Bear of the Berlin International Film Festival and Best Feature Film at the Sundance Film Festival made the nominees and winners of the Oscars. 

Any Nigerian filmmaker who cannot or has not competed for the best international awards in the global film industry should not be considered for the representation of the Official Selection of the entry for the Best International Feature Film Category of the Oscars.

Only the best should represent Nigeria, because only the best is good enough for us.

Nigerian filmmakers have not even won the prizes for the Best Feature Film at the annual Durban International Film Festival of South Africa, the highest ranking international film festival in Africa and only one Nigerian filmmaker, Newton Aduaka has won the Étalon d'or de Yennenga" (Golden Stallion of Yennenga) at the Ouagadougou Panafrican Film and Television Festival (FESPACO) for his critically acclaimed film, "Ezra" in 2007. 

The problem of Nigerian filmmakers is the fact that they don't like being told the truth and when you tell them the truth, they become upset and even stop communicating with you in their unprofessional and unintellectual attitudes. But the fact is majority of them don't even know that filmmaking is not for those who are intellectually challenged, because the Art of Filmmaking is beyond the mere craft of shooting a movie.

Majority of the filmmakers in Nigeria don't know what is Art Direction and many of them have not studied Production Design.

Many of them don't know what is the aspect ratio of a movie for the cinema and most of them don't know what is a shooting ratio.

They don't even know how to use lighting for storytelling; costume for storytelling; the nuances of

characterisation and music for storytelling in filmmaking.

I have advised the film schools in Nigeria to use nominees and winners of the Oscars for case studies in filmmaking to teach their students on how and why the nominees and winners got the nominations and won the Oscars.

The  Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) for the Oscars  should know that to make the nominations for the Oscars is more than the mere selection of the official entry.

Is there a budget for the promotion of the selected film?

Promotion for reviews in the highly esteemed and rated international news media such as the New York Times, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline Hollywood, Indiewire, Screen International, CNN, BBC and Underurrents of the  International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI)

Read How Much Does It Cost To Win An Oscar? - BBC News

Just two of the most high-profile attempts to influence what must be the most select group of voters on the planet, the 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Estimates for the total amount Hollywood spends on Oscar campaigns range from $100m right up to $500m in a single year.23 Feb 2016

https://www.bbc.com › news › ent...

How much does it cost to win an Oscar? - BBC News

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35613630

By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

The Publisher/Editor,

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,

The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

Founder/CEO,

International Digital Post Network Limited,

Screen Outdoor Open Air Cinema (SOOAC),

Affiliate Partner, Cinewav of Singapore

New Still Life Art Photographs

 

The First Temptation

Focus on the Treasure

The Ballet of Romance

The Illusion of the Heavenly Sky

The Discovery of the Red Apple with the Golden Ring

The Foresight of Charles Darwin

Space Travel To An Unknown Planet 1

I See A Bright Future

Waiting for the Great Nollywood Director

Space Travel To An Unknown Planet 2

Everyone Counts in the World

Once Upon A Time There Was A Popular Smartphone

Focus on Your Future

Seize the Year

My Vision of Mecca 1

STOLEN PROPERTY 1

My Vision of Mecca 2

New Still Life Art Photographs by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima for the Red Apple Series and Serendipity Series.

© Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima. 2024. All rights reserved. No copying, duplication and reproduction in any format of media without the authorization and permission of Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima and International Digital Post Network Limited.

Who Owns Antiquity? Unraveling the Origins of Nok Sculptures of the Ancient Nok Kingdom in Nigeria

Have you read "Who Owns Antiquity?"

Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage" by James Cuno, Princeton University Press, 2008.

How can the academic luminary Prof. Kwame Anthony Appiah, author of "Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers"(Norton, 2006) ask "Whose Culture is it Anyway?" and query the origins of the sculptors of the famous Nok terracotta sculptures found in the middle belt region of Nigeria existed from around 500 B.C.E. to 200 C.E. 

He said the Nok sculptures were not made for the Nok  people.

I have to doubt his knowledge of the historical facts of Nigerian arts and culture. He should have done his research beyond the walls of Princeton University before the publication of his book.

Nok sculptures were made by the Nok people of the ancient Nok Kingdom on themselves for themselves over 2000 years. And the most recent excavations and the latest discoveries have proved that the sculptures were done by the people on different aspects of their lives like historians who wrote books on objects and subjects of different people and events in different places and times.

He should read about the latest discoveries on 

https://www.modernghana.com/news/499121/newly-discovered-nok-sculptures-exhibited-for-the-first-time.html

Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah FRSL (/ˈæpiɑː/ AP-ee-ah; born 8 May 1954) is a British-American philosopher and writer who has written about political philosophy, ethics, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appiah is Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University, where he joined the faculty in 2014.[2] He was previously the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University.[3] Appiah was elected President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in January 2022.

https://appiah.net/

By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series
The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry since 2013.
Affiliate Partner,
Cinewav of Singapore
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchimaeyerengozi

Beware of the Night of the Beast

 

"Beware of the Night of the Beast"
Still life art photography from
my Red Apple Series and Serendipity Series, the most comprehensive series in still life art photography in the history of contemporary art in Nigeria.

Who is the Beast?
The next one titled "Beauty and the Beast" will reveal the identity of the Beast.
It is political art photography.

All the photographs were shot within 30 days with my smartphone camera in a bedroom/study in September and October, 2024 in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria.
They are available on art canvas for auctions, collections and exhibitions.

There are more than 50 photographs so far and more will be shot before end of this year for the publication of the book of my still life art photography.
There is only one red apple with a gold ring in the world.
It is the invention of yours faithfully, Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, master of the imaginative symbolism in art and literature.
- Ekenyerengozi Michael China,
Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series
The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry since 2013.
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima
©All rights reserved.
No copying, reproduction or publication in any format of media without the authorization and permission of International Digital Post Network Limited.

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#night
#beauty
#politics
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#series
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