Mo Abudu and Chioma Ude Have the Best International PR for Nollywood

Mo Abudu and Chioma Ude Have the Best International PR for Nollywood

Mo Abudu, the Founder and CEO of the EbonyLife Group and Chioma Ude, the Founder and CEO of the annual Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) have the best international public relations profiles for Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

Both of them understand the importance and significance of international public relations for the promotion of Nollywood as a global brand of the Nigerian film industry. And that is why both of them are the  most recognised and have been attracting international partnerships with the leading film and TV entertainment companies in the world, including Netflix, Sony Pictures and Disney.

Mo was the first to gain international recognition with the influential Hollywood Reporter calling her Africa's answer to Oprah Winfrey and named her among Hollywood Reporter's MIPCOM's 25 Most Powerful Women in Global TV.

https://nigeriansreportng.blogspot.com/2013/10/mo-abudu-makes-25-most-powerful-women.html. 

Then the highly esteemed Forbes magazine named her Africa's Most Successful Woman. 

In 2021, She was selected to become a Voting Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the annual Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars.

Her international honours within 11 years have been really groundbreaking as a trailblazer for Nigerian women in the global entertainment industry.

Forbes Africa recognised Mo Abudu as the first African woman to own a Pan-Africa TV channel in 2013; Entrepreneur of the Year award by Women Week in New York in 2014; appointed a Director of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences responsible for staging the annual International Emmy Awards.and later appointed her as the first African Chair of the 47th annual International Emmy Awards Gala, held in New York on Monday November 25, 2019; named on the Power list 2018 of UK's top 100 most influential people of African and Caribbean descent; the first African to be awarded the MIPTV's 2019 Médailles d'Honneur, in Cannes, France; named in the  Powerlist 2020 of the Top 100 most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent and featured in the Greatest Blacks Ever: Top 100 Blacks Who Changed the World for (Peace: Progress: Prosperity).

Mo did not receive all the accolades of her outstanding achievements overnight. She started with her "Moments with Mo" on TV like the Oprah Winfrey Show that inspired her as she told the New York Times in her recent most comprehensive interview last week.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/23/arts/television/mo-abudu-netflix-castle.html

She talked about her influential family backgrounds, childhood dreams, education and top flight professional career as brand ambassador for AVON Cosmetics for the African market; HR consultant with Atlas Recruitment Consultancy firm in the UK; the Starform Group; Head of HR for Arthur Andersen and HR & Training for ExxonMobil. She was the Founder of Vic Lawrence & Associates Limited.

Her passion for the film and TV entertainment industry is powered by her vision to excel, succeed  and triumph in spite of the economic and societal challenges of Nigeria in competition with the best in the world. 

Chioma Ude has paid her dues before she became the first Nigerian woman to be in Variety's Annual International Women’s Impact Report for 2020

https://nigeriansreportng.blogspot.com/2020/03/chioma-ude-makes-varietys-annual.html

Before, Chioma became a trailblazer for Nollywood, she has been an Amazon in Corporate Nigeria as the Managing Director and CEO of JATA Logistics Ltd. Then she invested in the blossoming Nollywood as she co-organised and co-hosted the successful 6th ION International Film Festival (IONIFF) (a touring festival originating from Hollywood) in 2009 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State with the organizing committee of experts, including Peace Anyiam-Osigwe the founder and CEO of the annual AMAA Awards, Caterina Bortolussi, the co-producer of ION International Film Festival, Soledad Grognett, Ilaria Chessa, June Givanni, Alessandra Speciale and Celine Loader. Then the following year, 2010, she founded and organised the first edition of the annual Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) in December and she has made it the numero uno of film festivals in Nigeria and West Africa.

She has invested her resources and quality time on the international profile of the film festival as I reported in my widely circulated "AFRIFF International Film Festival Brings Hollywood-Style Glitz and Glamour To Lagos"

https://nigeriansreportng.blogspot.com/2011/12/afriff-international-film-festival.

AFRIFF has awarded scholarships for international courses in filmmaking and film studies in America and France. 

In 2019, Chioma became the Co-Founder and Group CEO of Envivo Communications Limited, a multifaceted convergence of the entertainment industry, educational developments and technological applications for the fintech Industry.

Envivo launched the nVivo TV, a 

free video on demand streaming platform that offers diverse content from the best content providers in the world.

By their visionary leadership, Mo Abudu and Chioma Ude have shown us the Big Picture of Nollywood of the future as one of the most dynamic creative developments in the global entertainment industry of the 21st century.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Publisher/Editor, 

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series 

247 Nigeria (@247nigeria) / Twitter

https://mobile.twitter.com/247nigeria

https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchimaeyerengozi

Two Thumbs Down For Lagos International Film Festival

I have been going to the so called Lagos International Film Festival since Wednesday and I am disappointed by the poor organization and poor standards.I cannot even write a good report as I did on the press parley of ION Film Festival published on Modern Ghana.

Nigerian Igbos are poor managers of their Nollywood film industry.

I have decided to start a real film festival as a model for Nigerian filmmakers and I will pass it on to the Yoruba Film Industry, because I know that Tunde Kelani will manage it well.

The organiser of the so called Lagos International Film Festival should call it Camel Film Festival and stop the misrepresentation of Lagos state with such a sham!

Nollywood Stars Support ION International Film Festival

The heavy rainfall of Tuesday morning did not stop the leading stars of Nollywood from thronging their favourite rendezvous Ojez Restaurant inside the National Stadium in Surelere, Lagos, to grace the press parley on the 6th ION International Film Festival to be held in December in the oil rich city of Port Harcourt in Rivers State, and making Nigeria the first host of ION in Africa.

Amaka Igwe, Zeb Ejiro,Kanayo O. Kanayo , Lancelot Imaseun, Charles Novia, Paul Obazele, the new President of the Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Madu Chikwenda, the founder and CEO of Lagos International Film Festival, Emeka Rollas and other Nollywood authorities spoke at the event on the importance of ION in re-branding the global image of Nigeria. Some top Nollywood actresses were also there. I noticed that the X-rated actress Cossy Ojiokor and top female producer and director Emem Isong were in their best elements as they tickled each other while Stephanie Okereke was on the high table and the beautiful Lilian Bach was a delight to sight.

Ilaria Chessa, the Creative Director of ION addressed the audience and answered all the questions on why Port Harcourt was chosen as the venue of the 2009 edition of ION, the importance and significance of the touring film festival to Nollywood and the public officials of the Rivers state government were excited to be co-sponsors of the 6th ION. They promised that their state government will guarantee the security of the event and dismissed fears of the militants in the volatile Niger Delta region.
ION got the approval of the stakeholders of the Nigerian film industry as they pledged their cooperation and support for the international film festival.