Happy Birthday Dr. Chika Christian Onu, One of the Founding Fathers of Nollywood
Today is the birthday of Dr. Christian Chika Onu, one of the best and greatest filmmakers in Africa. He is famous as one of the Founding Fathers of Nollywood and the author of "The Unusual Story of the Early Years of Nollywood" distributed by Amazon and other booksellers.
Top Nollywood filmmaker, Christian Chika Onu received his PhD in Film Studies from the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
He is famous as the director of the bestselling Nollywood movies "Living in Bondage 2", "Glamour Girls", "Peacemaker" and other popular movies for which he has won many awards in Nigeria and America. He is the co-author of "Nak-ed Beauty", the first Nigerian screenplay to be published and sold as book. The recce for the film production was completed on Bonny Island, Rivers State in 2008, but production has been delayed by the political violence in the Niger Delta. The screenplay is based on crude oil thieves and militancy before the Amnesty for Niger Delta militants, co-written by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, aka "Orikinla Osinachi" after four years research on Bonny Island.
Dr. Christian Chika Onu who also studied filmmaking at the highly esteemed Colorado Film School in Denver, USA.
Chika Onu has always been an outstanding achiever with numerous awards since he won the first prize in the J. F. Kennedy International Essay Competition in 1973 and went on to excel as President of the Oak Theatre during his undergraduate years at the famous University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) where he was also the Associate Editor of “The Muse” Departmental Magazine. In 1979 he won the British Council Award for the Best Creative Writer (University Press); Prime Director Award by Video/Film marketers in 2002; Member, Movie Makers Hall of Fame, Abuja in 2006; Pioneer Director Award Best of the Best (BOBTV) Expo, Abuja in 2008 and many other accolades of which the most recent are the 2014 TV and Film Achievement Award by Los Angeles Nollywood Film Association (LANFA) in August and Life Time Achievement Award in Cinema by Nollywood Africa Film Critics Awards (NAFCA), Los Angeles in September, 2014.
Dr. Onu is also the co-author of Naked Beauty, said to be the first Nigerian Screen play to be published and sold as book.
Dr. Chika Onu is a Director of over a hundred Nollywood movies many of which have won Awards and gained popular admiration and acclaim in America, South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria. Ten of these chart bursting movies include;
Living in Bondage 2 (1994)
Glamour Girls (1995)
True Confession (1996)
Evil Genius (1997)
Karishika (1997)
Ukwa (2002)
Fire on the Mountain (2002)
Peace Maker (2003)
Submission (2003)
My In-Law (2004)
Dogs’ Meeting (2005)
Rings of fire (2005)
Python King (2006)
Sweet Potato (2011)
Great Messenger (2011)
Evil Kingdom (2013)
African Tradition (2014)
My Peace o Mind (2015)
Dangerous King (2016)
To Love a Crippled Prince (2018).
