Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman, Anikulapo and the Obsession for Netflix in Nollywood

Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman, Anikulapo and the Obsession for Netflix in Nollywood

Planning is everything and everything is planning in achieving our goals in our occupations and professions.

Nobody is too big, too high or too old to learn.

The films, ‘Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman" by Biyi Bandele and   "Anikulapo" by Kunle Afolayan  should have been in the Official Selections of the  Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in competition with the best new films by other filmmakers in the world. 

Both of them were produced for Netflix and the producers were fixated on seeing them in competition for the global Top 10 movies on Netflix.

The obsession of Nigerian filmmakers for Netflix deserves to be studied by psychologists.

Being on Netflix has become a status symbol for bragging rights by local filmmakers in Nollywood and their second obsession and status symbol is Amazon Prime Video SVOD.

To them being on either Netflix or Amazon Prime Video SVOD is like winning an Oscar at the annual Academy Awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Once they are on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video SVOD, they have arrived, even though they are among the lowest paid filmmakers compared to the American, European, Australian and Asian filmmakers on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video SVOD.

Hundreds of the local filmmakers can stampede over themselves to be on either of the two leading streaming platforms for even US$20, 000. Yeah, they have become so cheap that many of them are giving their new movies to MultiChoice for less than US$1, 000 per movie! In fact, they fast and pray and do night vigils of praise and worship to be accepted by Netflix, Amazon Prime Video SVOD and MultiChoice.

They are doing more harm than good to the international reputation and valuation of Nollywoood and the Nigerian film industry.

If the focus of the producers of "Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman" and "Anikulapo" has been on making the Official Selections of the biggest international film festivals and the Academy Awards, there would not have been any controversial rejection of the films by the  Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) for the Best International Feature Film category of the 2023 annual Academy Awards. Their focus on Netflix distracted them from following the road map to the Oscars.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima.

The Publisher/Editor,

NOLLYWOOOD MIRROR® Series,

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Complete List of Winners at the 79th Annual Venice International Film Festival

Official Awards of the 79th Venice Film Festival

CINEMA - 10 SEPTEMBER 2022

OFFICIAL AWARDS OF THE 79TH VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

Announced by the five international Juries during the Awards Ceremony that was held on Saturday 10th September at 7:00 pm.

VENEZIA 79

The VENEZIA 79 Jury, chaired by Julianne Moore and comprised of Mariano Cohn, Leonardo Di Costanzo, Audrey Diwan, Leila Hatami, Kazuo Ishiguro and Rodrigo Sorogoyen, having viewed all 23 films in competition, has decided as follows:

GOLDEN LION for Best Film to:

ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED

by Laura Poitras (USA)

SILVER LION – GRAND JURY PRIZE to:

SAINT OMER

by Alice Diop (France)

SILVER LION – AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR to:

Luca Guadagnino

for the film BONES AND ALL (USA, Italy)

COPPA VOLPI

for Best Actress:

Cate Blanchett

in the film TÁR by Todd Field (USA)

COPPA VOLPI

for Best Actor:

Colin Farrell

in the film THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN by Martin McDonagh (Ireland, UK, USA)

AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to:

Martin McDonagh

for the film THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN by Martin McDonagh (Ireland, UK, USA)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to:

KHERS NIST (NO BEARS)

by Jafar Panahi (Iran)

MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD

for Best Young Actor or Actress to:

Taylor Russell

in the film BONES AND ALL by Luca Guadagnino (USA, Italy)

ORIZZONTI

The ORIZZONTI Jury of the 79th Venice Film Festival, chaired by Isabel Coixet and comprised of Laura Bispuri, Antonio Campos, Sofia Djama and Edouard Waintrop, after screening the 18 feature-length films and 12 short films in competition has decided to award:

ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST FILM to:

Jang-e Jahani Sevom (WORLD WAR III)

by Houman Seyedi (Iran)

ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR

Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel

for the film VERA (Austria)

SPECIAL ORIZZONTI JURY PRIZE to:

CHLEB I SÓL (BREAD AND SALT)

by Damian Kocur (Poland)

ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS to:

Vera Gemma

in the film VERA by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel (Austria)

 

ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST ACTOR to:

Mohsen Tanabandeh

in the film JANG-E JAHANI SEVOM (WORLD WAR III) by Houman Seyedi (Iran)

ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to:

Fernando Guzzoni

for the film BLANQUITA by Fernando Guzzoni (Chile, Mexico, Luxembourg, France, Poland)

ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM to:

SNOW IN SEPTEMBER

by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (France, Mongolia)

VENICE SHORT FILM NOMINATION FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2022 to:

SNOW IN SEPTEMBER

by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (France, Mongolia)

ORIZZONTI EXTRA

ARMANI BEAUTY AUDIENCE AWARD to:

NEZOUH

by Soudade Kaadan (UK, Syria, France)

VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM

LION OF THE FUTURE – “LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM Jury at the 79th Venice Film Festival, chaired by Michelangelo Frammartino and comprised of Jan Matuszyński, Ana Rocha de Sousa, Tessa Thompson and Rosalie Varda has decided to award:

LION OF THE FUTURE

“LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM to:

SAINT OMER

by Alice Diop (France)

VENICE CLASSICS

The VENICE CLASSICS Jury, chaired by Giulio Base and comprised of 21 students of Cinema, chosen from the professors of Italian University Cinema programmes, has decided to award:

VENICE CLASSICS AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY ON CINEMA to:

FRAGMENTS OF PARADISE

by KD Davison (USA)

VENICE CLASSICS AWARD FOR BEST RESTORED FILM to:

Koroshi no Rakuin (BRANDED TO KILL)

by Suzuki Seijun (Japan, 1967)

VENICE IMMERSIVE

The VENICE IMMERSIVE Jury, chaired by May Abdalla and comprised of David Adler and Blanca Li, after viewing the 30 projects in competition has decided to award:

VENICE IMMERSIVE BEST EXPERIENCE to:

THE MAN WHO COULDN’T LEAVE

by Singing Chen (Taipei)

VENICE IMMERSIVE GRAND JURY PRIZE to:

FROM THE MAIN SQUARE

by Pedro Harres (Germany)

VENICE IMMERSIVE SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to:

EGGSCAPE

by German Heller (Argentina)

Source

https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/official-awards-79th-venice-film-festival

"Saint Omer" is in the Competition for the Golden Lion at the 79th annual Venice International Film Festival

"Saint Omer" is in the Competition for the  Golden Lion at the 79th annual Venice International Film Festival on 7 September 2022

"Saint Omer" is a 2022 French film directed by Alice Diop, one of the most  outstanding international awards winning African documentary filmmakers. The world premiere is at the on going 79th annual Venice International Film Festival.

The film is starring Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanda. Its is Diop's first narrative feature producing multiple award winning documentary films.

In the film, Rama (Kagame) is a pregnant young novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Malanda), a Senegalese woman accused of murdering her 15-month-old child by leaving her on a beach to be swept away by the tide, in order to turn the tragic event into a literary retelling of Medea. 

"Saint Omer" is also in the Official Selections of the 2022 annual Toronto International Film Festival and the 2022 New York Film Festival before the theatrical release in France in November 2022.

     ALICE DIOP,  DIRECTOR, SCREENWRITER,  CINEMATOGRAPHER.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

In June 2016, I attended the trial of a woman who killed her baby daughter by dropping her off at high tide on a beach in France. I imagined that she wanted to offer her to the ‘sea’, a more powerful ‘mother’ than she could be. Inspired by a true story, but fueled by an imagination that summoned mythological figures, I wrote this film: the story of a young novelist who attends the trial of an infanticidal mother with the aim of writing a contemporary version of the Medea myth. But nothing will happen as she had planned. The opacity of the accused will constantly return her to her own ambiguity about motherhood. It is a film that I wanted to make to probe the unspeakable mystery of mothers.

View the best updates on the 79th annual Venice International Film Festival on 

www.pinterest.com/nigeriansreport

Chad and Morocco in Official Selection of the 74th Annual Cannes Film Festival

Chad and Morocco in Official Selection of the 74th Annual Cannes Film Festival

Two films by African filmmakers are in competition for the prestigious Palme d'Or, the most coveted award of the annual Cannes Film Festival in France 

In competition is "Lingui,” by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, who was the  Minister of Tourism, Culture and Crafts of Chad from February 5, 2017 to February 8, 2018. He is well known for his award winning films, including "Bye, Bye Africa", winner of the Best Film Prize at the 1999: annual Venice Film Festival; "Daratt", winner of the Special Jury Prize at the  2006 annual Venice Film Festival and the Yennenga bronze stallion and Best Photo Award at 2007 FESPACO; "A Screaming Man", winner of the Jury Prize at the 2010 annual Cannes Festival and the Robert Bresson Prize at the Venice Film Festival (awarded by the Catholic Church).

The second film is "Casablanca Beats" (Hauts et forts) by Nabil Ayouch, the first by a Moroccan filmmaker to qualify for the competition of the Official Selection of the annual Cannes Film Festival. The  74th annual Cannes Film Festival, is from July 6 to 17, 2021.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Publisher/Editor, NOLLYWOOD MIRROR ® Series.