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‘Champions of Our
Time’, a movie by hotly tipped director, Mak Kusare, has won the Best
Nigerian Feature award at the just concluded Abuja International Film
Festival (AIFF). A film about class and disability, ‘Champions of Our
Time’ tells the story of two brainy girls who dream of entering
international quiz competitions.

Another big winner
in Abuja was American film, ‘Making the Crooked Straight’, which took
home the prize in the Best Foreign Documentary category. A 30-minute
documentary by Susan Cohn Rockefeller, the film is about the inspiring
vision of Rick Hodes, a medical doctor who works among destitute
people, mostly children, in Ethiopia. ‘Making the Crooked Straight’
also bagged the coveted Golden Jury Award.

The Best Foreign
Feature at AIFF went to China, for ‘Light Rail No. 3’. The Best Short
feature prize went to ‘No Jersey, No Match’ by Daniel Ademinokan, a
Nigerian filmmaker.

The Abuja Film
Festival honour is the latest accolade for Kusare’s movie, ‘Champions
of Our Time’, which also beat 22 other features to win the ‘Golden
Mboni Award for Best Children Film in Kenya earlier this year. Jurists
at the Lola Kenya Screen Audiovisual Media Festival had said of the
120-minute film, “[‘Champions of Our Time’] is based on a universal
theme that is experienced all over the world. The cast is well chosen
and we find the film educative, informative and captivating.” A
graduate of the National Film Institute, Jos, Kusare won three awards
for his debut film, ‘Ninety Degrees’ in 2006.

Held at the
Silverbird Cinema, Abuja, from October 26 to 29, AIFF was supported by
the Federal Ministry of Information and Communication, the Nigerian
Film Corporation, the Nigerian Television Authority and the National
Film and Video Censors Board, among others. Members of the diplomatic
missions of nine countries, attended the festival’s events.

What they said

Now in its seventh
year, the 2010 festival had as its theme, “Celebrating Nigeria at 50
Through Cinema.” In attendance were many stakeholders in the movie
industry, including marketers, directors, producers and performers.
Speaking at the opening ceremony on October 26, festival director
Fidelis Duker enunciated on the theme of the AIFF 2010 and the need to
celebrate the success of cinema in Nigeria over the last 50 years. He
also used the occasion to highlight some of the challenges facing the
festival, especially in terms of institutional funding. Duker however
vowed that the festival will go from strength to strength.

The MD of the
Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) Afolabi Adesanya who represented the
Minister of Information and Communication, noted that Nigerian cinema
has been a valuable tool for the projection, promotion and preservation
of the country’s cultural heritage and political development since
independence. “There is a need to remind us of the impact and
contributions of cinema to the growth and development of our great
nation,” he said.

What happened

Some 30 films of
various genres were screened during the festival. In addition to
seminars and workshops, panel discussions about the film industry in
Nigeria, were another major focus of AIFF. These were intended to
highlight and allow film practitioners to confer on matters crucial to
the growth of the motion picture industry. On the two panels were
veteran filmmakers Dele Osawe and Eddie Ugbomah, Solomon MacAuley; the
DG of the National Film and video censors board, Emeka Mba and the
president of the Directors’ Guild Ejike Asiegbu, amongst others. The
panel discussions were on the topics, ‘Cinema in Nigeria – 50 Years
After Independence’ and ‘Structuring the Nigerian Film Industry for
Growth’.

Panelists conversed
on sponsorship, funding and Government cooperation. They also touched
on the need for a vibrant relationship between the industry and
Government agencies like the NFC. Concerns were also raised about the
problem of piracy, which continues to plague the industry; and the
seeming inability of government bodies to create an enabling
environment for the sector to grow.

At the festival,
which is known to attract audiences and entries from all over the
world, there were participants from countries including: Taiwan, USA,
Germany, China, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Brazil, Iran
and Columbia. Movie categories that were screened included: short and
long films, feature films, documentaries and animations amongst others.
Among the many Nollywood figures in attendance, were: Jeta Amata, Nse
Ikpe Etim, Eddie Igboma, and Uche McAuley.