Showing posts with label Mo Abudu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mo Abudu. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Top 10 Most Powerful Women in Nollywood and the Nigerian Film Industry

Who are the top 10 most powerful women in Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry?

Do you know them?

The movers and shakers and the leading achievers in film production, distribution and exhibition.

They were twelve; two of them have passed on to eternal glory, but the milestones of their legacies have become testimonies of their outstanding achievements in the history of Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.
I have already written on Mrs. Amaka Igwe, MFR that was  published in the Black Film Maker magazine in the UK in 2006. 
She was the numero uno of the women in Nollywood.
On 2 January 2020, Google celebrated her 57th birthday with a Google Doodle.
Mrs. Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, MFR has been celebrated locally and internationally and her Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) was the cover feature of the first edition of the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series in 2013 which has become a collector's edition by art collectors on Nollywood and the history of filmmaking in Nigeria. Madam Peace was the only filmmaker in Nollywood to become a TED Fellow.
(Please, if you know another one, let me know).
Both of them are profiled among the 40 Nigerian female filmmakers in the third edition of the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series to be released this year.

The top 10 Most Powerful Women in Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry, who are currently among the most active and accomplished leading achievers and stakeholders will be featured in the third edition of the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series.
One of them will be on the cover.
I will not reveal all the ten, because of those who will quickly copy the title and rush to publish the list and claim the credit for the authorship.

The following are the first top three.

Ms  Mo Abudu
Ms. Chioma Ude
Mrs. Stephanie Linus


- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,


Thursday, October 20, 2022

"Elesin Oba: The King's Horseman" is Not the First Film Adaptation of Prof. Wole Soyinka's Works

"Elesin Oba: The King's Horseman" is Not the First Film Adaptation of Prof. Wole Soyinka's Works


The film project is the first time that one of Soyinka’s works would be made into a feature film.
http://lifestyle.thecable.ng/biyi-bandeles-elesin-oba-to-hit-cinema-oct-28/

It is baffling how Nigerian news media and their news reporters will continue to peddle falsehood on "Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman" being the first film adaptation of one of the works of Prof. Wole Soyinka.

The colourful film adaptation of "Death and the King's Horseman", one of the most popular plays of Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during the British colonial era: the horseman of a Yoruba King was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the colonial authorities is erroneously being reported as the first film adaptation of one of his literary works. 
So what of the previous film adaptations of Soyinka's plays and autobiography? 
"Kongi's Harvest" of 1970 directed by Ossie Davis and produced by Francis Oladele, Lennart Bern
“Ake: The Years of Childhood” by Mr Dapo Adeniyi; 2016
"Sidi Ilunije", the film adaptation of "The Lion and the Jewel" by Tunde Kelani in 2017.

When Mo Abudu, the producer of the film said "Elesin Oba" is the first film adaptation of Prof. Wole Soyinka's works on Instagram, I corrected her that there have been film adaptations of other plays of Soyinka. But I have seen repetitions of this falsehood in several news reports.

Misinformation on the facts of life and history does collateral damage to human knowledge and education.  And the realization is more important for Mo Abudu who should be well educated on the history of filmmaking in Nigeria and film adaptations of Nigerian literary works, because she is a highly respected stakeholder in the Nigerian film industry as the Founder and CEO of the EbonyLife Group, owners of EbonyLife Studios, EbonyLife Films and the EbonyLife Creative Academy.


- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOOD MIRROR® Series

Sunday, September 18, 2022

The World Premiere of “Elesin Oba, The King’s Horseman” at the Toronto International Film Festival

The World Premiere of “Elesin Oba, The King’s Horseman” at the Toronto International Film Festival

"Elesin Oba, The King’s Horseman” coproduced by the EbonyLife Studios and Netflix premiered at the 2022 annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Saturday, September 10. But I am still waiting for the reviews of the  premiere.

How was the reception?
How did the audience react?
What of the reviews by the film critics and journalists?

Bella Naija simply reported that it premiered at TIFF with the Executive Producer  Mo Abudu,  Odunlade Adekola, the lead actor, Omowunmi Dada, and Deyemi Okanlawon and showed their photos.
That's all.
No reviews and no interviews.

Biyi Bandele who directed the film adaptation of Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka‘s play “Death and the King’s Horsemen.” unfortunately passed on suddenly weeks ago before the world premiere.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
The Publisher/Editor, NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series


Wednesday, December 15, 2021

The Best and Biggest International Acquisition for NIgerian Content in 2021 Happened on Vuulr

The best and biggest international acquisition deal for Nollywood in 2021 happened on Vuulr

On Vuulr, over 68 hours of NIgerian content was bought by a leading OTT platform in North America and more movies were acquired by an Asian video streaming and video on demand platform, one of the biggest and largest video streaming services in the world with over 280 million users globally and has a streaming library of over 150,000 hours across 12 languages worldwide.

Other major international acquisition, distribution and production deals in 2021 included Lionsgate's acquisition of "A Soldier's Story 2" for video on demand and television distribution across the United States and Canada; Silverbird Group's US$50 mllion deal with AAA Entertainment of South Africa to develop and produce a series of cinematic African feature films in Africa; Kemi Adetiba's deal with Netflix for "King Of Boys: The Return Of The King" political thriller in a seven-part project that is Netflix's first Original Series from Nigeria; Walt Disney Animation Studios and the Kugali Media's Disney Plus Original Series “Iwájú” and lest I forget BBC Studios signed a development deal with Mo Abudu's EbonyLife for a six-part heist crime thriller, "Reclaim".
These groundbreaking deals for content producers in Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry have made International headlines and I am expecting more international acquisition and distribution of NIgerian movies and series in 2022.












Wednesday, September 29, 2021

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.
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.
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

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




Monday, October 11, 2010

Show Me Your Logo: Building A New Nigeria Starts With You and I




Show Me Your Logo: Building A New Nigeria Starts With You and I

I have the seen the parade ignorance
In the masquerade of arrogance
.


Posing and posturing in lip service and eye service with false airs and graces are common life styles of many Nigerians, in particular the so called elites among the populace. The irony of their pretentious life styles is the fact that their unscrupulous behavior exposes their falsehood. They have made little or no positive impact in their community and larger society. That is why so much poverty is surrounding them and they cannot create things that would uplift the majority of the poor masses and have failed woefully to boost human capital development in Nigeria. Most of them are mere consumers and not producers.

We have millions of youths out of school and unemployed and the government cannot provide jobs for them.
Corporate Nigeria wastes millions of naira sponsoring TV Realty shows and games that do not add much to our GDP or GNP and cannot create jobs for our millions of unemployed youths.

They are promoting pornographic and psychedelic music shows misleading millions of our young girls and boys who end up with mass failures in our examinations, millions of cases of STDs and HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies.

Lecturers are on strike as they cannot continue to deceive their students with undeveloped curricula and broken down facilities on campuses where students stool in the bedrooms of their hostels, because their toilets are horrible.

When we disrespect our students, and make them stool like dogs in their broken down hostels, they end up dehumanized and don't care about morals and social cultural values, because they have low esteem. No wonder they have to do all sorts of sharp practices to make ends meet and end up as corrupt graduates and most of them are unemployable and may become our liabilities. Because we now have graduates with questionable certificates and no professional or intellectual skills.

Doctors are on strike, because the government is corrupt and incompetent.

I wonder why any competent government will even allow doctors to go on strike when we don't have enough medical doctors in Nigeria?
And medical students suffer many indignities in our teaching hospitals.
All medical students should be on full government scholarship and medical doctors in our public hospitals should be well paid and given modern accommodations and transportation to motivate them to do their best for the benefit of their poor patients who cannot afford the bills at private hospitals.

The political contractors in power do no care, because they can afford the medical bills at the private hospitals in Nigeria and overseas. And their children do not worry about employment since they have looted the treasury to provide the luxuries of life for them.

It is a tragedy that they spend hundreds of millions of naira on the acquisition and possession of their posh cars and SUVs and luxury homes, when a fraction of that money would have been invested in building cottage industries and creating jobs in their respective communities. With only N3, 000, 000 (three million naira) a cottage industry such as an Adire Tie and Dye enterprise can be developed and create up to 20 jobs in a rural village or urban neighborhood and within 12 months that Adire making enterprise will be making over N5 million profit for the community. And there are many models of profitable cottage industries to use and replicate in every community in every local government area in every state in Nigeria. The untapped Adire Tie and Dye business is a billion naira industry. The Adire cloth can be used to make apparels of all sorts. Adire can be used to make shirts, trousers, skirts, gowns, hats, caps, jackets, uniforms, etc.

In the summer of 2009, I got a franchise for Startup Weekend from the Startup Weekend of America. Startup Weekend is an Information Computer Technology (ICT) initiative to create Internet based companies and creates jobs at every weekend brainstorming retreat that will be held in every local government area. At least 3 companies are created and incorporated at every startup weekend and the companies will be owned and managed by all the participants who are between 100 to 250 people at every weekend. Of course not all the 100 to 250 people need to be actively engaged in the companies, but every one of them will be a shareholder in each of the companies as long as the person participated in the startup weekend that created the startups. The successful models of such startups are the billion dollar Amazo.com, Ebay.com, Facebook.com, and other booming dotcoms in the US.

Startup Weekends can be held in every local government in Nigeria and will create thousands of jobs within 12 months.
There is a Startup Weekend project for Nollywood, the largest movie industry in Africa. This Startup Weekend project will make millions of dollars for Nigerian movie producers and will make more money than Silverbird Cinemas, Genesis Deluxe Cinemas and other cinemas in Nigeria. The captive and receptive audiences for this Startup Weekend project for Nollywood are ready and waiting for the launch.
There is another Startup Weekend project for Nigerian Lotto Games that will gross millions of dollars weekly.
There is another Startup Weekend project for Nigerian tertiary schools that will make millions of dollars annually.
The Startup Weekend projects I have mentioned have been launched successfully in America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. We are ready to launch them for the first time in Africa, right here in Nigeria.

Pastor Poju Oyemade of the Covenant Christian Center has been using The Platform as the pivot for the mobilization, motivation and sensitization of Nigerians for the raising of spiritual leaders, intellectual leaders, financial leaders and political leaders who will be the champions of the nation building of a New Nigeria in the leadership of Africa in the comity of nations on earth. Mo Abudu of Inspire Africa and Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli of Leap Africa and other trail-blazers are busy doing their best to discover and launch young Nigerians who are gifted and poised to make a positive impact in their communities and larger society of our common sovereignty.
Don’t be left out of the revolution of the making of a new nation.


My vision of a great Nigeria was written in my first prize winning essay “What I like Best about Nigeria” when I was only 13 and also in my first prize winning poem “Song of Patriotism” when I was 20. I have used the gospel of Jesus Christ to preach this divine vision to thousands of people on public transport buses in Lagos city for 11 years and I demonstrated it when I launched the first National Literary Essay Competition for Secondary Schools at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies of the University of Lagos in 2003, under my publishing company King of Kings Books International.

What are you doing to make a positive impact in your neighborhood, community and society?
Show me your logo?


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Highly Recommended:
Only The Best Is Good Enough For Us