- Title: NIGERIA: Nigeria celebrates local talent in the 4th Abuja Film Festival.
- Date: 1st October 2007
- Summary: LOCAL MUSICIANS PERFORMING AUDIENCE WATCHING
- Embargoed: 16th October 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Nigeria
- Country: Nigeria
- Reuters ID: LVA9JTWE6JDYFD1CGRMVA9NE0WHI
- Story Text: Local artists and producers are feted at the 4th Abuja Film Festival held annually in Nigeria's capital. Nigeria's film industry, popularly referred to as "Nollywood", produces thousands of movies and millions of US dollars each year.
Nigeria recognised its best in the film industry at the annual Abuja festival held for the fourth time on Friday (September 28) in the capital city.
Uloma Oko, won the Best Producer prize while the highly-contested Best Film award went to Soke Sowolu for the movie 'Mama Put'.
"I feel tremendously gratified to have won the award for 'Mama Put'. 'Mama Put' was a labour of love, it wasn't a commercial project, and it was a tremendous opportunity for my self and all the other, everyone that was involved, the cast and crew behind the scenes," said Sowolu.
Despite criticism that this year's event did not match the pomp and fanfare of previous festivals, Felix Dukker, says he was happy with the turnout.
"There's no perfection in any endeavour but to us we have achieved 90 percent of our aims, with the level of participation this year, with the level of people who came for the festival this year, compared to last year. We have close to 12 different film-makers around the world who are in Nigeria and we have six or seven international exhibitors. Then we received over 350 films from about 42 nations at the festival for us it's an achievement and its still remains the best film festival in Nigeria," Dukker said.
The movie industry in Nigeria, popularly referred to as 'Nollywood', began in 1992 and has grown over the years to become one of the world's biggest film industries after Hollywood and India's 'Bollywood'.
According to 'This is Nollywood', a documentary on Nollywood's growth, the industry currently has about 300 film producers making about 1000 movies annually. The average film sells about 50,000 copies, each copy selling for about two US dollars each. An average project takes 10 days to finish with a budget of 15,000 US dollars. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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