An executive of Paramount came to Nigeria last year during the 2021 annual Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF).
Will Paramount+ be able to compete with Netflix , Amazon Prime Video and Showmax for the increasing millions of subscribers to SVOD streaming channels in Africa?
I had a dream two days ago of the take off of Paramount+ in Nigeria like a plane taking off. I was given two tickets for the flight at the airport and I woke up.
There are no breakthroughs without breaking barriers and protocols.
- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Author of "The Prophet Lied", "Diary of the Memory Keeper", "Scarlet Tears of London", "In the House of Dogs" and other books distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers worldwide.
Win a visit to Sony Pictures Studio and gain exclusive insight into the industry.
Submit your best short films for free by December 13, 2022
Enter now
https://www.sonyfuturefilmmakerawards.com/node/1
The winning and shortlisted filmmakers will be flown to Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, for a three-day event.
Taking place in the historic Sony Pictures studio lot in Culver City, California, the inspiring program provides invaluable opportunities to support career progression. The 30 successful filmmakers will gain unparalleled insight into all aspects of the filmmaking process. From pitching to legal to working with talent agencies and using cutting-edge technologies, the outstanding workshops provide exclusive access into the inner workings of the industry. Winners are announced during a black-tie awards ceremony at the Cary Grant Theatre.
Filmmaker winners
The Filmmaker competition elevates original voices that bring a fresh perspective to storytelling. The three winners receive $5,000 (USD), an FX9 Cinema Line Camera (plus lens), and are flown, along with the shortlist, to Los Angeles for a two-day workshop program and a black-tie awards ceremony.
Student Filmmaker winners
The Student Filmmaker competition rewards the talent soon to shape the industry. The two winners and their institutions receive a range of Sony camera equipment ideal for filmmakers. Winners are flown, along with the shortlist, to Los Angeles for a two-day workshop program and a black-tie awards ceremony.
Future Format winners
The Future Format competition challenges filmmakers to respond to a technical brief. The winner receives $2,500 (USD), a range of Sony camera equipment ideal for filmmakers and is flown, along with the shortlist, to Los Angeles for a two-day workshop program and a black-tie awards ceremony.
Awards Timeline
July 26, 2022
Competitions open
December 13, 2022
Competitions close
February 22, 2023
Winners announced during ceremony.
February 23 to 24, 2023
Two-day workshop program #filmmakers#filmmaking#career#opportunities#future#creative#event#legal#talent#storytelling#awards#competition#prizes#winners
From Mati Diop To Alice Diop: Two French Senagalese Female Filmmakers Who Have Made History in Cannes and Venice
First it was Mati Diop, the French-Senegalese filmmaker whose first feature film "Atlantics" made her the first black female director to be in the Official Selection in competition for the Palme d'Or and won the Grand Prix equivalent of the silver prize at the 2019 annual Cannes Film Festival, making her the first black female director to win an award in Cannes' 72-year history. And another French Senegalese filmmaker, Alice Diop with the same surname has just made history as first black female filmmaker to win the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, for her first feature, "Saint Omer" and also the Lion of the Future LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS Venice Award for a debut film at the 79th annual Venice International Film Festival in 2022.
Mati Diop was born in Paris on June 22 in 1982 and Alice Diop was born in Aulnay-sous-Bois, France in 1979.
- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Publisher/Editor, NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series.
The following is from an interview with Alice Diop on the making of "Saint Omer".
What led you to develop it as a narrative feature?
A documentary was never the plan. At the time, I was too busy with research, plus we couldn’t shoot in the courtroom and I would never [make the real participants] reenact the proceedings. Anyway, I wanted to recreate my experience of listening to another woman’s story while interrogating myself, facing my own difficult truths. The narrative had to trace a series of emotional states that can lead to catharsis. It’s like accelerated psychotherapy.
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:
Genevieve Nnaji just got on the list, because of the outstanding success of her directorial debut, "Lionheart".
#Nollywood
#Filmmaking
#Filmmakers
#movies
#series
#Scholars
#students
#Africa
#Nigeria
#Nigerians
#film
This is not the complete list, because there are still some notable female directors in Nollywood who emerged after this selection who will be included in the third edition of the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series printed in Raleigh, NC, USA.
This edition is a special focus on the Nigerian female filmmakers in Nigeria and the Diaspora.
I am the sole funder of the NOLLYWOOD MIRRO ® Series, the first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry since the first edition in 2013. I have not received any support from anyone else, private or public organization.
The articles in the first and second editions are among the most cited and quoted references in film studies, anthropology and African Studies by film scholars, students and others.
The Art Editor and Book Designer, Juvelin Aripal in from the Philippines.
Queen Elizabeth II is the longest-reigning monarch in the history of Great Britain and the Commonwealth. While her service to her country is legendary, she has become a figure of strength, endurance, and dignity the world over and indeed we all feel connected to her. Through triumph, loss, scandal, and celebration, witness the story of how a young Princess became Queen to the people of the world.
STARRING: Dicky Arbiter (former spokesman for Queen Elizabeth II), Sarah Bradford (Royal biographer), Gyles Brandreth (broadcaster/former Parliament member), Phil Dampier (journalist)
"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
TWAA: The New Global Women’s Networking Platform Lifting Communities across Africa Launches Women in Tech Community
TWAA seeks to create impact in the world of networking, with a focus on tools for community mobilization, content sharing and networking targeting the female economy
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, August 31, 2022/ -- Built with safe protocols and features to counter cyber bullying; Set to redefine digital networking as we know it and drive intra Africa trade; Women influencers and communities globally are setting up for “early adopters” advantage; Available on web portal, android app and IOS apps for women worldwide.
TWAA - a mentorship and digital community based social media company arising from Africa – launches a “Women in Tech” community on its platform in a bid to connect women led communities with technology. TWAA seeks to create impact in the world of networking, with a focus on tools for community mobilization, content sharing and networking targeting the female economy.
Founded by African media and tech entrepreneur Irene Kiwia, and incubated and invested by leading Pan African venture studio Adanian Labs, TWAA is a platform where women across the world can build groups and manage their communities in a safe space. The platform incorporates multi tools for content creation and sharing; collaboration and co-creation, group management; a marketplace for products and services; group and one-on-one mentorship and much more.
“TWAA is built to give women a relevant platform that addresses critical issues in digital networking including data privacy, a by design shield from cyber bullying, inclusivity, accessibility and an overly simplified personal portal that allows women to build and manage their communities more efficiently and effectively - with mentorship being a key component. TWAA is built by women for women, factoring in varied nuances that are specific to what women find as relevant to how they use and interact with technology,” said Irene Kiwia, TWAA founder.
TWAA has been in beta (https://bit.ly/3Rs5jXf) mode since October 2020 on its web portal, and the android app version went live in May 2021 with the IOS app launching today.
Currently TWAA has over 25,000 members from over 35 countries. It is open to “early adopters” who can benefit from building a solid wave of connections and becoming the platform’s initial set of influencers as the member base grows.
“What’s fascinating about TWAA is the fact that it is built to promote inclusivity with women in mind, giving users an exciting user-friendly experience with features that streamline engagement like never before. For the first time ever I feel like I have a platform that ticks the key things that I needed the most in my personal development journey. It’s absolutely empowering!” said Linda Caroline, a TWAA member and Project Manager at Bureau Veritas.
‘I have been managing multiple women communities in various platforms and it’s always been overwhelming to deliver value because everything is super scattered with a user journey that is tiring to both me as a community manager and my network members. TWAA gives me a one stop platform to onboard my groups and interact with each group seamlessly, because the group management tools factor in everything I need to grow and bring value to my group… from members management, a content portal, a marketplace, a video conferencing tool, to networking tools, and all of this within one click.” Said Jane Thomas, a women empowerment champion in South Africa.
Even though The TWAA platform is still relatively new, the social media world has shown how quickly networking platforms can grow. We have seen newly launched social apps going viral and becoming global sensations virtually overnight, grossing billion dollars in a short time span.
“Our mission at TWAA is to give women digital tools that will help them create massive value for themselves and their communities. We built a platform with women in mind considering issues around safety and cyberbullying, where by design the platform counters that. We also understand how important communities are for women and we have ensured that we give them a platform that will enable them to build and manage communities in a manner that drives value. We are launching a Women in Tech community on TWAA to bring key technology stakeholders along with women in technology to bridge accessibility in terms of capacity, knowledge, information, tools and resources. We foresee a community where women who are looking to join the tech space in Africa are interacting, learning and exchanging value and collaborating”.
Here’s what you should know about TWAA, the women's platform that may soon have the female world and female led communities globally interconnected and creating exponential value.
On the TWAA platform, members can create groups and invite their communities to join and participate in mentorship, knowledge sharing, video chats, conversations and other forms of collaboration. Members can see other members, their profiles and connect with each other. Members can also set up groups with the person who creates the group taking over the admin rights to set up group protocols.
Members can also display their products and services on Store - the in-platform marketplace, set up their speaker’s bio on the speakers’ portal and display books in the book store to ensure that they can be accessed across the world.
Members can also interact with the built-in content sharing features including article write-ups, short posts, video posting, photo sharing and podcasts. The content is well segmented to allow members to access video, audio, written and all other content on dedicated portals, with the timeline giving the platform an edge on feature options.
Signing up to TWAA is easy. You can access the platform via wwww.twaa.io or download the app on android play store or IOS app store and set up your profile. The biggest appeal for the platform is that it feels like all of one’s favorite platforms and digital tools are fused into one fabulous portal, allowing for seamless interaction at one place.
TWAA members can sign up as individuals or as an organization – with a different dashboard experience for each. Several organizations are signing on to the platform including Bureau Veritas, a global leading standardization company who were among the first organizations to use the platform to run an internal capacity building program for the women within their organization.
TWAA is also running a campaign to get influencers, content creators, women’s groups, women’s associations and corporates across the world to join the platform and use it as a tool to build a valuable proposition in empowering women across different sectors.
The platform can be used as a forum for a range of topics across various sectors and discourse. Be it fashion, beauty, science and technology, innovation, entrepreneurship or any other type of activism, TWAA provides the relevant tools to connect, mobilize, engage and influence.
Given the current tech landscape, it is exciting to see an African innovation that is scaling globally, and the future looks promising for TWAA as it grows both in its member base and profile, disrupting the way women connect and interact with social platforms.
LAGOS, Nigeria, August 31, 2022/ -- PalmPay (https://PalmPay.com/), a fintech innovator aiming to make digital payment more accessible and flexible, announced that it has reached 10 million users in Nigeria. This represents a doubling in its user base within just six months and puts its customer numbers in the same league as major institutions only 3 years after the company launched in the market.
The fintech, which operates under a Mobile Money Operator license from the Central Bank of Nigeria, has gained significant traction with its payment’s app and nationwide agency banking network. Its proposition of instant financial account creation, fee-free bank transfers and cashback rewards on airtime and bill payments has appealed to Millennial and Gen-Z consumers, who are looking for more affordable banking options and prefer the convenience of a digital-first service.
Nowadays PalmPay is processing millions of transactions a day. And around 20% of the company’s customer base report that the PalmPay app was their first financial account, demonstrating that the Mobile Money Operator is contributing to driving progress towards financial inclusion targets in Nigeria, where 36% of the population remains unbanked.
Nigerians without smartphones can visit one of PalmPay’s 200,000 mobile money agents across the country, who can transact on their behalf or issue an innovative QR card that can be used to hold a balance. Consumers can also use PalmPay agents to deposit cash to their PalmPay accounts and to withdraw money using their debit cards through PalmPay-branded POS machines.
“We are delighted to be able to celebrate this growth milestone and are proud of PalmPay’s track record of making cutting-edge financial services accessible to every Nigerian - including the unbanked.”, said Mr Chika Nwosu, Managing Director, PalmPay Nigeria, "The pandemic has accelerated the shift from cash to digital payments and we are looking forward to continuing to work together with regulators and our partners to innovate to meet the financial needs of consumers."
“Our significant growth in Nigeria demonstrates PalmPay’s ability to innovate to meet the financial needs of consumers, and we are looking forward to replicating this success as we scale in more markets across Africa.” said Sofia Zab, PalmPay Global CMO.
About PalmPay: PalmPay is a fintech innovator that aims to make digital payment more accessible and flexible for consumers and merchants. We improve users' digital payment experiences by offering instant financial account creation, money transfers, and bill payments.
Since launching in 2019, PalmPay has quickly established itself as one of the continent's leading and fastest-growing payment providers with 10 million users and a mobile money agent network of 200,000.
PalmPay raised a US$100 million Series A round of funding in August 2021, with US$140 million raised in total. The company is now operating in Nigeria and Tanzania, and will be scaling its proposition in other African markets in 2022.
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