The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Oscar

  • Nigerian wins Oscar Prize in UK

    Nigerian wins Oscar Prize in UK

    Nigeria’s Inaoyom Imong, has been announced winner of a Whitley Award by the Whitley Fund for Nature, a prestigious environmental prize.

    Imong, a conservation leader, won the prestigious ‘Green Oscar’ for his work in protecting Africa’s most endangered great gorillas (Gorilla gorilla diehli) in Cross River state, Nigeria.

    HRH! The Princess Royal presented a Whitley Award, a prestigious international nature conservation prize worth £35,000 (N8.2 million) in project funding to Imong at a ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society, London.

    Globally recognised as a hotspot for primate, amphibian, bird and butterfly species, the tropical rainforests of south-eastern Nigeria are home to the Cross River gorilla, with only 300 estimated to remain in the wild.

    These primates and their habitat are under threat from lack of legal protection, deforestation and hunting to supply the illegal bush-meat market.

    As Director of the Cross River Landscape Project at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Nigeria, Imong leads a community-based conservation project in the Mbe Mountains to protect the forest and its fragile population of Cross River gorillas.

    Oscar Imong_Cross River gorilla_Nov13Imong has established the Conservation Association of the Mbe Mountains (CAMM), which brings together people from nine different communities in a joint effort to manage the Mbe Mountains area and secure its legal status as a community wildlife sanctuary.

    Imong’s efforts have not only kept the gorillas from being hunted – not a single gorilla has been poached since the inception of the project – but built capacity for their future conservation.

    Imong is helping people establish alternative livelihoods as eco-guards to improve the protection and monitoring of Cross River gorillas and other wildlife; giving people a sense of ownership over the conservation of the forest.

    In his speech, Edward Whitley, Founder of the Whitley Fund for Nature said: “The calibre of this year’s Whitley Awards winners is outstanding.

    “Although they each face remarkable and different challenges in their home countries, these exceptional individuals are passionate about securing a better future for both people and wildlife. The Whitley Awards are a celebration of their achievements.”

    Imong is one of seven individuals to have been awarded a share of prize funding worth £245,000 (N58 million) by the Whitley Fund for Nature, winning the Whitley Award donated by the Garfield Weston Foundation.

    Other winners in the 2015 Whitley Awards are: Panut Hadisiswoyo – Indonesia, Pramod Patil – India, Rosamira Guillen – Colombia, Arnaud Desbiez – Brazil, Jayson Ibañez – Philippines and Ananda Kumar – India.

    HRH! The Princess Royal will also present the Whitley Gold Award 2015 – a prestigious profile and funding prize awarded to a previous Whitley Award winner in recognition of their outstanding contribution to conservation.

    The Whitley Gold Award is donated by The Friends and Scottish Friends of the Whitley Fund for Nature and is worth £50,000 (N12 million).

    This year’s recipient is 2009 Whitley Award winner, Dr. Dino Martins from Kenya for his project – People, plants & pollinators: protecting the little things that power the planet.

    Dino is working with local people to raise awareness and encourage the adoption of more sustainable farming practices that conserve pollinators, boost crop yields, and benefit people in East Africa.

    Joining the Judging Panel to assist in selection, the Gold Award winner also acts as mentor to new Whitley Award winners receiving their Awards in the same year.

  • Thief belittles Lupita Nyong’o’s Oscar dress

    Thief belittles Lupita Nyong’o’s Oscar dress

    •Returns outfit, says it’s fake

    Until the dress got missing and was returned by the anonymous thief, the white custom Calvin Klein gown Lupita wore to present J. K. Simmons’s Best Supporting Actor, at the just-concluded Academy Awards, was one of the biggest stories of the show.

    It caused more stirs as police were flustered as to how her Oscar dress escaped detection when it was taken from her hotel room, but soon discovered it was thrown off her balcony.

    TMZ reported that the cameras weren’t trained on Lupita’s door and none of the cameras on the floor showed anything suspicious.

    The guy who stole the dress had called the news medium, Friday, with a road map to its recovery in The London West Hollywood bathroom where the 12 Years a Slave actress had lodged. The thief said he knew where the cameras were placed in the hallway so he was never seen. As for the dress, he claimed he threw it over the balcony and someone on the ground picked it up.

    On why he returned the dress, the thief said he took two of the pearls off the dress and down to the Garment District for appraisal, but found they were worthless. He then decided to return the dress.

    According to the thief, he regretted not taking Lupita’s Oscar gift bag instead, which he valued at $125,000.

    Meanwhile, Los Angeles sheriff’s spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said the dress found on Friday afternoon at a West Hollywood hotel “greatly resembles” the pearl-adorned Calvin Klein Collection by Francisco Costa dress Nyong’o wore to the Academy Awards.

    She said detectives are attempting to verify the recovered dress is the same one Nyong’o wore.

    Encrusted with 6,000 white Akoya pearls, Fortune estimated it was worth $150,000.

  • Actors get Toronto buzz for Oscar 2015

    Actors get Toronto buzz for Oscar 2015

    Feelers from the just-concluded Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Canada, have it that, in most of the films in competition, none got outstanding accolades like the individual actors in them.

    The assessments of the festival’s contents, by the several media in attendance, including Hollywood Reporter, Variety and IndieWire, stem from the curiosity that usually follows TIFF, as the last film ‘harvest’ leading to the annual Oscars.

    As predicted last year, 12 Years A Slave, which held its public premiere at the festival and won the People’s Choice Award, received nine nominations at this year’s Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director for Steve McQueen and went on to win three awards: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for John Ridley and Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong’o.

    Reports say among the more than 300 films that premiered at the annual movie feast, there were, of course, many terrific movies and a theater’s worth of fine filmmakers. But nothing captured the spotlight of this year’s Toronto, which wraps up on Sunday, like the actors’ performances.

    That’s very unlike last year where the loudest buzz from Toronto rang out for another masterpiece such as the stunning Gravity. Both 12 Years A Slave and Gravity left last year’s festival hoisted upon the shoulders of enthusiastic Oscar prognosticators and awed moviegoers.

    Judging by this year’s not-too-impressive outing, guests at the festival recalled other heavyweights or previous TIFF sensations such as the Academy Award-winners Slumdog Millionaire or The King’s Speech.

    Among the movie stars with the thickest applause at TIFF are, Eddie Redmayne, Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Bill Murray, Felicity Jones, Benedict Cu,berbatch, Julianne Moore and Jennifer Aniston.

    In James Marsh’s Stephen Hawking film The Theory of Everything, 32-year-old British actor, Eddie Redmayne, wowed Toronto with his depiction of Hawking’s gradual physical deterioration and his undeterred spirit. Jake Gyllenhaal was also impressive in Nightcrawler, playing a poor but ambitious Los Angeles man whose nighttime prowling exposes him to a potential new career: shooting video of murder and car crashes for the “if-it-bleeds-it-leads” local news. There is also Reese Witherspoon who plays a woman looking for catharsis on the Pacific Coast Trail after a divorce and her mother’s death in Jean-Marc Vallee’s Wild.

    Toronto was said to belong to Bill Murray for a whole day, with the hosting of a ‘Bill Murray Day’ of screenings, culminating with the debut of St. Vincent, a comic but touching tale of a curmudgeonly neighbour (Murray) who reluctantly befriends a young boy next door. Reports say it’s the biggest, most dynamic role Murray’s taken on in years.

    Also, while the headlines for The Theory of Everything went to Redmayne, the film wouldn’t work without Felicity Jones as his wife, Jane Hawking.

    Another actor to look out for is Benedict Cu,berbatch, known for his precision and complexity in the film Sherlock. But in The Imitation Game, in which he plays World War II British code-breaker Alan Turing, Cumberbatch tackles an even bigger brain. Reports say the role is not only complicated by depicting the mathematical brilliance of Turing, but of the pressure he was under as a closeted gay man at a time when homosexuality was criminalised.

    There is also Julianne Moore, who was at the Cannes Film Festival in May for Maps to the Stars (also a Toronto entry) that earned her award for best actress. The actress took Toronto with Still Alice, in which she plays a Columbia University professor in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

    In the same vein, Jennifer Aniston, was applauded for Cake, which is said to be earning her the best reviews of her career. It is said to be her most unglamorous role ever, as she plays a woman left scarred and in constant pain from a car crash.

  • ‘Oscar partied soon after Reeva’s death’

    ‘Oscar partied soon after Reeva’s death’

    Paralympian murder-accused Oscar Pistorius partied less than two months after he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, the Sunday Times reported.

    A businessman, who asked not to be named, told the newspaper that Pistorius had arrived uninvited at a party that the businessman was hosting in Illovo, Johannesburg, on April 6 last year.

    Pistorius is currently on trial, charged with murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, whom he shot dead through a locked toilet door at his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day last year.

    Pistorius has claimed that he shot Steenkamp by mistake after believing there was an intruder in his house.

    On Sunday, the newspaper quoted unnamed sources, reportedly guests at the party in April, who said that, at the event, Pistorius had appeared subdued at first, but after drinking heavily, had taken to the dance floor as well as tried to flirt with a woman – who rejected him.

    Recently, reports emerged that Pistorius had been involved in an altercation with businessman Jared Mortimer at an upmarket club, the VIP Room, in Sandton, Johannesburg, last Saturday night.

    Mortimer told The Star newspaper that Pistorius had been intoxicated at the time and had insulted President Jacob Zuma.

    Subsequently, Pistorius’s uncle, Leo Pistorius, released a statement, on behalf of the family, in which he said that the athlete’s move to venture into a public space while the trial was under way had been unwise.

    He said the family had witnessed Pistorius’ “escalating sense of loneliness and alienation. This, we believe, is underlying some of his self-harming behaviour.”

    Leo Pistorius also refuted Mortimer’s version of events, saying the businessman had been the “aggressor” in the incident and was “peddling untruths”.

    Pistorius’s murder trial is set to resume on August 7, when final arguments are expected to be heard.

  • Yinka Edwards: A Nigerian’s rough turf to British film school

    Yinka Edwards: A Nigerian’s rough turf to British film school

    THE second edition of the Nollywood Movies Awards took place on Saturday the 12th of October at the Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. Many of Nollywood’s key industry players were there and left the event with awards. Yinka Edwards, one of Nigeria’s most talented cinematographers, was one of the winners that night. He received the award for Best Cinematography for Phone Swap, a movie he describes as a team effort. “I am grateful to God that people thought the movie was outstanding enough to garner an award,” said Yinka. “I also appreciate the team effort of the crew on set, especially Afred Chia, who helped with the end bits of the shoot, when I had to film another movie in Kenya.”

    Yinka’s career has spanned many years and he is one of the filmmakers making waves in the country and outside as well. You will recognise Yinka as the cinematographer behind such works as the MTN I go Port advert, Izu Ojukwu’s 76 and Kunle Afolayan’s Figurine, and October 1.He schooled at the National Film Institute, Jos and was the first alumnus of the school to win an award at the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). His work on the Figurine earned him an award for best cinematography in 2010. Since then many of the movies Yinka has worked on have been recurring features at awards events like Alero’s Symphony, Phone Swap and Confusion Na Wa. Confusion Na Wa took home the awards for Best Nigerian Movie and Best Movie overall at the 2013 AMAA awards.

    His career started at the BBC World Service Trust’s critically acclaimed series, WetinDey. After WetinDey he was invited to Namibia to shoot the television series, The Ties that Bind. The series was the first indigenously produced series in Namibia. Yinka has not only worked in Namibia but he also worked in Kenya. He attended the One Fine Day Films workshops and was the first Nigerian to be invited back to shoot a feature movie. The movie, Something Necessary, was a co-production between Kenya and Germany and the movie went on to screen at many international film festivals such as the Durban Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.

    Yinka is an individual who is serious about the art and craft of filmmaking. He wants to improve the Nigerian film industry in any way he can and that means also improving his skills.

    He has recently been admitted to study for his postgraduate degree in Film and Television Production (with a concentration in cinematography) at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in the UK starting January 2014.

    The NFTS is one of the most prestigious film schools in Europe. Their alumni include Oscar winners and BAFTA winners. The school only admits eight students into the cinematography department every year, out of hundreds of applications that they receive. Yinka is the first African to be admitted into the cinematography programme in the school’s history. This is no small feat and he knows this. He attributes his success to God. “I can only say that God is the one that has brought me this far. Everything I have ever achieved is from him and I am aware of that and thank him for every success,” says Yinka.

    As you would imagine, tuition fees to attend such a prestigious school is on the high side and he is currently trying to raise funds to pay his tuition fees, which is due on November 1st. “Being admitted into the NFTS is like a dream come true,” he says. “So far people have been trying to help me raise the money, but I’m still not quite there yet. I’m trusting God that before October is over there will be positive news and I will have the money to pay my fees.”

    Overall, Yinka is not only making the film industry proud, but the whole country as well. We wish him good luck and God’s speed and hope that stakeholders everywhere will be able to rally round him to help him attend the NFTS.