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Four out of the
nine films shot during the Babylon International film development and
training workshop held in Abuja last month, have attracted financiers’
attention at the Cinemas du Monde Pavillion, Cannes International Film
Festival.

With their success
at the forum, ‘The Land’ by Funke Oyebanjo and Sebari Diette-Spiff;
‘Wahala’ by Farouk Lasaki’; ‘Letter to the Prof’ by Chike Ibekwe and
Jide Bello’s ‘My Brother’s Sin’ have qualified for production funding.

Babylon
International 2010 was supported by a number of organisations including
the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), Media International of the
European Union and the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg Germany, Scenario
Films (UK), Script House (Germany) and Play Film (France).

Film professionals,
Albly James, John Akomfrah, Tony Dennis, Lina Gopaul, Femi Odugbemi,
Juergen Seidler, Gareth Jones, Nathalie Valentin and Afolabi Adesanya
were the script consultants during the workshop.

The 2010 Babylon
International programme was launched at the Berlinale, Germany in
February with a script development workshop that brought filmmakers
from Europe and Africa together. It allowed participants to network on
how to forge links across the two continents.

Reacting to the
development, Managing Director of the NFC, Afolabi Adesanya, expressed
happiness that the four Nigerian films were selected out of several
other entries. He added that partners and consultants to Babylon
International were also happy with the development. Adesanya reiterated
that more Nigerian films will compete confidently with others on the
global stage if filmmakers adhere to “doing things right”.

In a related
development, one of the four selected films has won another award.
Chike Ibekwe’s ‘Letter to the Prof’ won the Best Film Prize at the just
concluded 14th Ecrans Noire Film Festival in Cameroun. His ‘Eternal’
also shared the Golden Screen Best Film Prize with ‘An Unusual Woman’
by Burkinabe director, Abdoulaye Dao. Ibekwe got funding for the film
from France.

Ibekwe, however, is not the only beneficiary of international
sponsors. Kenneth Gyang, an alumnus of the National Film Institute,
Jos, will receive support from the Hubert Bals Fund in Netherland to
produce his film ‘Confusion Na Wa’. The film will be distributed in
Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Gyang had previously worked as
director on the BBC’s ‘Wetin Dey’. He also produced and directed the
‘Finding Aisha’ series.