AFRIFF
AFRIFF 2024
AFRIFF 13 Jury Members' Statement
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Wafa’a Celine Halawi:
Good evening, everyone
We are honored to be here at AFRIFF and serve as the jury for this remarkable 13th edition. Allow me introduce the jury members: Stephen “Dr” Love, Ego Boyo, Dennis Ruh, Victor Okhai, Cynthia Okoye, Yolanda Mogatusi, Lanre Olupona and myself Wafa’a Celine Halawi. Thank you to all the great festival team and the woman behind it, the one and only Ms Chioma Ude. Chioma, thank you for your faith and courage to keep going on, surmounting all challenges and making a real difference in the prominent Nigerian film industry.
We have spent a wonderful week, meeting exceptional filmmakers, attending resourceful panels and most importantly, watching lots of films! All under the powerful banner: Indigenous to Global, Cultural Wealth and Global Prosperity.
Why is this important? Across the globe today, we still see wars and conflicts in various indigenous lands. We see untold or “mis told” stories. And this is a global concern. It sometimes seems like we live in a world where wealth and culture are not often associated, and indigenous and global are seen as possible opposites.
Bridging these gaps almost becomes a human mission, reminding us of the power of films and the stories they carry.
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Stephen Dr Love:
Stories are indigenous too, they constitute the wealth of a culture and shape the mainstream narrative, and so, they must be brought to the world. Through intimate explorations relating universal themes, they also remind us that we are, in fact, all indigenous to the very same planet we inhabit together. And if to change the world, we must change the way we look at it, how powerful is it to see it differently, more humanly, more truthfully, through the lens of films.
This change has been AFRIFF’s mission for the past 13 years now.
It was particularly challenging to choose the prizes this year, among a pool of outstanding, powerful and touching films. The films were intensely curated, clearly reflecting the festival’s values in unexpected ways, intertwining themes of memory, family and legacy through a real labor of love over many years. The student films were particularly notable, a promise of a bright future for Nigerian cinema.
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Ego Boyo:
To quote acclaimed filmmaker Ruben Olstund, “A good film relates to the collective experience, stimulates us to think and makes us want to discuss what we have seen”.
In that sense, we would like to share our Jury Special Prize for this edition. But before, we have an Honorable Jury Mention, to a nuanced creative work that takes us on a journey of memory and why it is important to look at our past in order to move forward, especially as filmmakers and storytellers. The Honorable Jury Mention for this year is Memories of Love Returned by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine.
We now come to the Jury Prize, awarded to an ambitious piece of work by an emerging talent out of Nigeria, humanly portraying the interconnectivity in our actions and their consequences. The Jury Prize for AFRIFF 2024 is Freedom Way, directed by Afolabi Olalekan, written and produced by Blessing Uzzi.
AFRIFF 2023
AFRIFF 2023 unveils a stellar jury for an exceptional year in African storytelling.
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They Cloned Tyrone producer, Stephen 'Dr.' Love to serve as jury president of AFRIFF (Africa International Film Festival)
Lagos, October 27, 2023
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AFRIFF (Africa International Film Festival) has announced jury members for the 12th edition, which is scheduled to take place from November 5 to 11, 2023 in Lagos, Nigeria.
After receiving over 2,000 films from over 100 countries across 5 continents during a very successful call for submission and choosing over 100 films for its official selection, AFRIFF jury members are now tasked with the arduous job of issuing their choice of finalists for AFRIFF Globe Awards.
As it is come to be expected, AFRIFF jury composition is a study in excellence in global filmmaking and expertise in the African film business.
AFRIFF 2023 jury is headlined by Stephen 'Dr' Love, the producer of one of Netflix most viewed movies of the year, They Cloned Tyrone, with Nigerian-British actor John Boyega in the lead, veteran US actor Jamie Foxx (Ray, Django Unchained) and Julliard-graduate, Teyonah Parish (Chi-Raq, Candyman).
Jury president Stephen ‘Dr.’ Love is joined by Emmy-nominated Nigerian-British writer-producer Abby Ajayi (How to get Away with Murder, Inventing Anna) , Nigerian film producer Greg Otudayo, Zimbabwean award winning author and winner of 2023 African Peace Prize Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Lebanese-French actress and director Wafa’a Céline Halawi, Geneva Wasserman, Entertainment and technology expert and SVP of Scripted Development at Dentsu, the Japanese media juggernaut, Cuban-American film producer and Afro-Latino voices in film mentor Ranada Shepard, renown Hollywood producer and head of Inventions Studios Nicholas Weinstock, multi-talented film acquisition expert and head of content at MultiChoice Busola Tejumola, Nollywood royalty and seasoned actress Kate Henshaw, and finally Nigerian economist and filmmaker Desmond Elliott.
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This will be a particularly significant edition after the 2022 edition of AFRIFF, where Disney’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Amazon’s Nanny, Sundance Grand Jury Prize, opened the festival. Paramount, Amazon, Disney, Netflix, Showmax, Mediawan, DStv, Dentsu, the African Union, Canal Plus, Afreximbank and a host of global industry stakeholders attended to offer further opportunities to and sustain the growth of the African creative industry.
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The international jury will award 14 Globe Awards to the most outstanding artistry and maestro in visual storytelling.
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ABOUT AFRICA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (AFRIFF)
The Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), conceived by Ms. Chioma Ude, is a world-class showcase that celebrates Cinema and filmmaking talent from Africa and the diaspora. It consistently delivers a rich programme to foster invaluable exchanges of ideas, production connections, and business relationships. It creates an energetic and exciting hub for entertainment industry professionals to make rewarding connections and has gradually gained a reputation for delivering Africa’s most vibrant film festival experience. Its objectives are to develop the film industry to a level where the products compete favorably with their contemporaries all over the world; provide a growth opportunity for these film industry professionals to eventually export their products to the world; facilitate access to investors, equipment, technical and skill acquisition through Festival organized fora and several capacity development workshops. www.afriff.com