Category: Entertainment

PLANS are already underway to host the annual ZAFAA Global Awards of 2023. The award, which is the biggest African film festival that attracts the crème de la crème of African international stars outside of Africa, is dedicated to promoting African movies and entertainment industry makers to the outside world.

The academy awards is in honour of African filmmakers who have contributed to the development and progress of the African film industry over the years in diverse ways.

ZAAFA has attracted leading international actors, the British Film Institute (BFI) and other Partners Training System (On/Offline), filmmakers, motion picture equipment manufacturers, motion picture investors, high-level government functionaries band diplomats as well as international media and cultural ambassadors with the large public grand finale (with all African Big Show) and the academy award will the high point of the event.

Entries for the award must be submitted under the stipulated guidelines with the digitalization of online film submission partnership with Filmfreeway.

For dark-skinned curvy actress and filmmaker, Nazo Ekezie, 2022 redefined her view of life and influenced her choice in various activities. In an interview with ADENIYI ADEWOYIN, the Anambra born actress revealed her regrets, new year resolution, challenges as a filmmaker, and other issues.

WHAT are your plans for 2023?

My plan is basically to do what I have been doing better. Go on more dates, do more projects, relax, explore and have more time for myself. I am making sure that I take care of myself this year and live more, have more fun because I’ve come to understand how short this life can be and how you should appreciate whatever is going on in your life. It just came into perspective for me towards the end of 2022 so I’m making sure that I treat myself better even while I work hard.

I see a lot of your movies and I wonder if you have time to rest or if you select the kind of scripts that you take?

I screen scripts but sometimes the directors insist that they want you for a particular role so you don’t have a choice. What can I say? I mean, if you’re good at what you do you cannot run away from it and I love what I do too. There will be more screenings this year when it comes to scripts and the kind of movies that I want to be seen in because we are going international.

Don’t you think you might be tagged as a proud person when you start rejecting some scripts?

No, I don’t consider it proud if I’ve not collected your money. I consider it being careful. I’ve gotten to a place in my career where it’s okay for me to do that so if I do it now it’s not pride anymore and I am looking out for myself. Like I said, I want to make sure that I am in the right movies basically, not that I’ve been in the wrong movies but just basically do better.

Are there movies you regret acting in?

Yes. There are some movies I wish that I could use my money to buy off their market so that nobody will see it because aside from the fact that I am an actor, I’m also a filmmaker, so I just don’t like bad films and then some times when some directors are talking, you will think they know what they are doing and then you go on their set you see what they are doing and you will be so disappointed but there’s nothing you can do because you’ve gotten paid and you have to deliver. I’m glad that at least right now Nigerians can differentiate actors and directors and producers because sometimes some directors can be so enthusiastic when they are talking but when it comes to putting it down to work it gets difficult which is quite understandable because they are probably just starting their careers. But then again, I don’t want to be seen in such anymore. Never!

What would you do better to avoid a bad movie?

Anything can make a movie bad, it could be lack of props. We can be somewhere talking about millions of dollars and then we are in one horrible looking house. But then again I will tell you this; bad movies are also good, bad movies train you as an actor whether you like it or not. You will definitely have to go through the bad ones to finally get to the good ones and bad movies are everywhere even in Hollywood. There are low budget movies everywhere and you can’t stop people from doing it because when you do one you will learn and then you will do better. I don’t blame people for anything and I am honestly not blaming anybody but bad movies are bad but they are not so bad. It helps you as an actor. It helps to improve your patience, your long suffering and your skills. When you act well in a bad movie people will be like this movie is a bad movie but I will watch it because of this girl. I don’t let it affect me when I come to a set and I see it’s not so good. I simply take my mind off it and do my thing.

Do you think there’s a strategy to achieve popularity as an actor?

I will say no because Nollywood has evolved and has opened up so much. These days people can use their phones and sit in their houses and become stars and before you know it they call you and feature you in a cinema movie. There’s no formula or method, all you have to do is show up hundred percent whenever you are called and as for not being where you want to be, excuse me, I don’t even think Genevieve is where she wants to be because when you are somewhere you will always aim higher.

As a filmmaker, what are the challenges you face while sourcing for movie locations?

I feel like one of the big challenges we have when it comes to location is that a lot of people who own these houses don’t know that they can make a lot of money from location business, they need to educate landlords of Lagos that you can make money from this. It seems that sometimes we are limited to some houses and that’s why you see that we reuse it but you can’t blame anybody, we use what we have.

You obviously take good care of your skin very well, however, on the bright side, has there been any discrimination for being dark skinned?

Whatever happens to you depends on how you perceive it. I grew up with a lot of dark beautiful women and I’ve never seen them with bleaching cream before so I already had the notion that this skin is beautiful before I started acting. When I started acting I had people come to me and tell me to bleach my skin a little bit but at the end of the day I know that you are capping because you can’t tell me that, it doesn’t make sense. And you know that some people that are in positions of power can be ignorant.

ODUMA Essan might not be so popular in Nigeria but he’s breaking new ground in neighbouring country, Ghana.

Essan, whose real name is Patrick Utomi, is a multi-talented singer, producer, and filmmaker, who also wears the hat of a record label executive. This native of Edo State grew up in Lagos and Accra, Ghana.

The businessman, songwriter, scriptwriter, actor, and filmmaker first gained attention after floating his record label Big Name & Stars Records BNS Records.

As a singer, Essan’s music is a blend of Afro-pop, dance-hall & hip-hop. To this end, he has released numerous music and videos in Ghana, where he has found himself a large fanbase in Accra, Ghana. With several songs to his credit, Oduma Essan has featured foreign and local music acts that include Joey B, Keche, Zlatan, Peruzzi, Orezi, and Fid Q.

MEDIA entrepreneur and filmmaker, Ugochukwu Favour-Mayor has indeed positioned himself as one of the sought-after content producers in Africa.

The content creator is making so much waves with two of his issue-themed films, ‘The Cathedral’ and ‘Ponzi Lord.’

In 2022, Ugochukwu’s ‘The Cathedral’ made a significant impact and caught the attention of the late Pope Francis. The Catholic community which supported Ugochukwu’s movie, took action to protect his YouTube channel from those who tried to report the page out of disagreement with the message of faith contained in the film.

Ugochukwu also channeled his brilliant mind to raise awareness about issues such as Ponzi schemes. Through his film, ‘Ponzi Lord,’ the content creator reached a wide audience and inspired people to take action.

Interestingly, through his exceptional talent and hard work, he tops the list as one of the content producers whose films air on MNet’s Africa Magic channel, alongside other cable stations and pay-on-demand movie platforms.

In addition to his impressive skills as a content creator, Ugochukwu is also deeply committed to positioning himself as a media entrepreneur and consultant. He is proud of his roots and is dedicated to using his platform to shed light on the diverse and vibrant cultures that make up the African continent.

FOLLOWING the leaked tape conversation between Alex Ekubo and Fancy Acholonu, a lot of fans are not happy with the leaked tape saying that Ekubo behaved childishly.

The tape, which surfaced on the internet after a series of explanations from Fancy about their relationship, was reportedly leaked by Ekubo to give his side of the story concerning the public apology Acholonu made.

Ekubo was heard having a conversation with Acholonu ‘carefully’ making his points with the mindset that he is recording Acholonu who obviously didn’t know she was being recorded.

Fans are having none of that as some of them have expressed themselves concerning the matter.

Miffed with Ekubo’s action, a student, Etete Etim said: “That guy is not ok. How can you record a conversation with somebody you intend to marry to achieve what? He was the only one talking, not allowing her to express herself so that he can show it as evidence to achieve what? She is lucky they didn’t marry, she would have seen hell in that marriage.”

Paul Ike says, “Can you imagine nonsense! If I were that guy’s friend, I would give him a great deal of distance because I may not know if he may be recording our conversations on the phone. He cannot be trusted. If he can do that to his fiancée, then nobody’s secret is safe with him.”

MULTIPLE award-winning film director, Biodun Stephen has advised couples to leave abusive marriages before it’s too late.

Stephen noted that once a marriage becomes life-threatening, the best thing to do is run as far as possible to live another day.

She said this while speaking to The Nation during the screening of ‘To Freedom’, a movie about domestic abuse and drawing the line between love and obsession.

“To be honest, it’s for better for stay – for worst for go. When it involves your life, go! Whether you’re a man or woman, once you can see that your life is at stake in any marriage flee,” she advised.

Continuing, she said, “At this point, you can only make another opportunity or another shot at life if you are alive. So if the marriage is threatening your life or even mental tranquillity, just leave because you cannot be your best self when your mental equilibrium is shattered.”

NOLLYWOOD actor, Mike Afolarin has revealed that the fear of going broke and failure motivated his acting skills.

“I’m just really passionate about not being broke,” Afolarin said.

Continuing, the graduate of Economics said, “Even though I’m passionate about the acting, and the storyline, I also like to get paid.”

Afolarin, who played a lead role in Netflix’s first Nigerian young adult drama series entitled, ‘Far From Home,’ said at first there was a scarcity of auditions when he started his acting career in 2016 but he stuck with his dreams.

On the challenges he faced as an upcoming actor, the 29-year-old actor described it as an interesting journey saying, “My journey has been quite an interesting one. My first ever acting gig was a stage production while I was in school. It happened when we had a six-month strike. I just used the opportunity to audition for a play and I got a lead for the stage play in 2013.

“So, in 2016, I decided to pursue an acting career fully because I was done with school. Even though the opportunities weren’t coming, I wanted to be around production sets, as an intern, to learn behind-the-scenes skills and use the opportunity to meet people. Somewhere along the line, I started getting opportunities in front of the camera.”

Afolarin recently became fans’ favourite when he played the role of Ishaya Bello in a blockbuster movie, ‘Far From Home’ alongside A-list actors including Funke Akindele and Richard Mofe-Damijo.

In 2019, Afolarin also featured as a major sub-lead character – Kinto in an Africa Magic series titled, ‘Brethren’. The show had 260 episodes with Afolarin featured in most of them. He also went on to feature in Ebonylife films ‘Your Excellency’ directed by Funke Akindele, ‘Soole’, Inspector K, ‘Kasala’,’ and ‘Stuck in Deep’ aside from other productions.