A total of N6.5million have been earmarked as cash prizes to reward filmmakers at the 2022 short film festival.
The short film festival is an initiative of the African Movie Academy Awards, AMAA, in partnership with Nigeria’s leading pay-tv company, StarTimes.
While entries are being received ahead of the April 14 submission deadline, AMAA’s founder Peace Anyiam-Osigwe revealed plans to reward dedicated filmmakers who come out tops at the festival.
“The festival will commence on April 25, 2022 and run for a whole month till May 25, 2022. During the festivals, exceptional films that make the cut will compete for cash prizes of N3 million (first prize) and a laptop, N2 million (second prize) and a phone, N1 million (third prize) with a phone, and a special prize of N500,000 for one lucky filmmaker,” Ms Anyiam-Osigwe said.
The partnership is in line with StarTimes and AMAA’s commitment to grow the Nigerian and African film industry.
Speaking on the partnership and prizes, StarTimes CEO, Alex Jian, said the collaboration for the short film festival is very crucial and strategic with the growing demand for quality local content by Nigerian and African film practitioners.
Jian also noted that StarTimes is glad to strengthen its partnership with AMAA to bring significant impact to the Nigerian and African film industry by ensuring the growth of filmmakers and getting value for their productions.
Ms Anyiam-Osigwe further shed more light on the film festival saying, “Our partnership will see short films airing from Mondays to Fridays on StarTimes leading channels like ST Nollywood plus, ST Nollywood, and ST Yoruba between 4PM and 6PM amongst other offerings.
“This partnership is big to us because it enables us to grow the short film industry in Nigeria and across Africa. We are happy that StarTimes keyed into this journey with us to give opportunities to young and existing filmmakers.”
Meanwhile, entries have been pouring in since the massive call for submission of entries from filmmakers was made in March 2022. Submission of entries closes on April 14, 2022.