Nollywood never had it better at an international film fest

The Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF, which opened on Thursday, September 5 and will close this Sunday, is sure to go down in the annals as one of the best for Nigeria. by Terh Agbedeh

Not only have several of the country's filmmakers showed up at the annual event, many Nigerians are beating their chests over the premiere of Half of a Yellow Sun, the first Nigerian film ever to have a major screening at TIFF. Adapted from a book of the same title by awardwinning writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, it is directed by U.K.-based Biyi Bandele and is the author and director's first feature film.

About the film Half of a Yellow Sun

Set in 1960s Nigeria, Half of a Yellow Sun is an epic love-story about four people swept up in the turbulence of the Nigerian civil war. It chronicles the lives of Olanna (Thandie Newton) and Kainene (Anika Noni Rose), two glamorous twins from a wealthy Nigerian family.

Returning to a privileged city life in newly independent 1960s Nigeria, after their English education, the two sisters make starkly different choices. Olanna shocks her family by going to live with her lover, Odenigbo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his devoted houseboy Ugwu (John Boyega) in the university town of Nsukka. Kainene, once the rebellious tomboy, turns to business, and proves fiercely successful at it. She surprises herself and the family even more by falling in love with Richard (Joseph Mawle), an English writer.

Preoccupied by their romantic entanglements, each desperate to navigate the politics of the day, the relationship between the sisters turns sour as betrayal tears them apart. They also become victims of the civil war that threatens to split Nigeria.

Other notable actors in the cast include Genevieve Nnaji, Gloria Young, Zach Orji, Tina Mba and veteran Nigerian singer/actress, Onyeka Onwenu. The original sound track for the movie was produced by Cobhams Asuquo and singer-songwriter Keziah Jones.

With Tunde Folawiyo as Executive Producer, Yewande Sadiku, an investment banker with 17 years experience, sourced the fund for shooting Half of a Yellow Sun.

NFVCB's support for Half of a Yellow Sun

An article on thestar.com titled: Big movies up for grabs at TIFF 2013', quotes the festival's artistic director Cameron Bailey as saying that this year provides the strongest slate of movies for buyers that I have seen in my six years in this job .

This is indeed a great year for industry players from abroad who come to Toronto on a mission to buy distribution rights to movies up for grabs at TIFF. The good thing about this is that the $8 million budget Half of a Yellow Sun, a co-production by Nigeria and the United Kingdom, has been listed among the forsale titles in Special Presentations. Others also listed are: The Double (based on a Dostoyevsky novella); Fading Gigolo (written and directed by John Turturro, who also stars) and Hateship Loveship (based on a story by Alice Munro). Also commendable is the fact that the film that stars Hollywood big names such as Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose, John Boyega and others, is Nigeria's first movie to screen at the TIFF. What many ought to applaud as well is that the National Film and Video Censors Board, NFVCB, was visibly supportive of the film which premiered at TIFF last Sunday; regrettably the only government agency with stakes in the Nigerian film industry to have done so.

Mkparu's Master Class held on Tuesday

Not only was the National Film and Video Censor's Board cheering onHalf of a Yellow Sun at the Premiere, the agency also hosted a special Master Class on cinema as a platform for film exhibition in Nigeria at Hotel Le Germain in Toronto on September 10. Chief Executive Officer of Film House Limited, Kene Mkparu, conducted the class. Film House is an emerging cinema chain in Nigeria and the only firm that has accessed the creative industry intervention fund provided by the Bank of Industry, BOI and the Nigeria Export and Import Bank, NEXIM.

AMAA at TIFF

Also at TIFF was a delegation from the African Movie Academy Awards, AMAA led by Chief Executive Officer, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe and comprising a few members of the Jury.

The Africa Cinema Business Roundtable at TIFF organised by the Africa Film Academy, organisers of AMAA, had Mr. Dayo Ogunyemi, Managing Director of 234Media, a Kenya-based company as the Keynote Speaker where he spoke on Policy, Funding, Distribution and Sustainability.

Film makers and allied professionals who converged on the Tudor Room of the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Toronto, challenged African leaders to see film as the biggest medium to export the cultures and the rich history of the continent to the rest of the world by evolving policies that will support the industry.

The highly interactive session which lasted for more than three hours generated much passion and debate among the participants mainly filmmakers and journalists from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Canada, Senegal, United States, Congo DRC and Nigeria.

I Ogunyemi noted that governments in Africa should support the industry through enabling laws and regulations that gives tax incentives and lower the cost of making films adding that cinema is vital to the growth and development of film in terms of profitability and sustainability for filmmakers.

He stressed that for film to have wider distribution and gross more revenues Africa needs more than 10,000 screens and the number of available screens in theatre across the continent is a far cry.

Jamel Quebak, a film maker from South Africa whose film **Of a Good Report** is on the official listing of the Toronto Film Festival noted that governments at all levels in Africa must see films as cultural products like the rest of the world, most especially in Europe and America by investing in infrastructures that will make the industry buoyant and vibran

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