AFRIFF is designed to influence global perspectives of African films, storytelling

The founder and festival director of Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), Chioma Ude, in announcing the theme for the 11th edition of the annual festival tagged, “Indigenous for Global” said it was designed to influence global perspectives of African films and storytelling.

“Filmmaking has evolved rapidly in Africa over the last two decades and this year’s edition is designed to influence global perspectives of African films and storytelling. We intend to continue to empower our storytellers to explore ideologies and techniques that appeal to a larger global audience,” Ude said during a recent festival program launch and media parley held at the Alliance Française de Lagos.

Ude said that the festival is designed to explore new-age technical frontiers in film production, with a focus on the use of sound and visuals in the making of award-winning short, feature, documentary and animation films in Africa for a global audience while hinting that the speakers would be mostly senior executives in the film production and distribution industry from the Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, U.K. and U.S. who will also aid in projecting avenues to showcase the best of attending filmmakers and their films to the international community.

According to Ude, the festival, which is scheduled to hold from November 6-12, 2022, will open with Prime Video’s award-winning psychological horror film ‘Nanny’. The film is a modern-day reinvention of horror and is emotionally haunting, evocative, culturally relevant and cinematic. It represents the often-overlooked immigrant working mother in the domestic space, who walks the tightrope of adaptation and assimilation. It tells the real story of a mother’s pursuit of a better future, for herself and her child, while trying to maintain her own identity.

“I had the pleasure of attending AFRIFF in 2019, and I am so excited to be back with NannyThe film is a personal story, rooted in my West African heritage and I feel deeply honored it was selected as opening night,” said Nikyatu Jusu, writer/director of Nanny.

Aisha Umar Mumuni, Ag. Chief Digital Officer, MTN Nigeria, while speaking on the partnership with AFRIFF, expressed her excitement about the possibilities of 5G technology for film practitioners in Nigeria. “One of the distinctive attributes of the 5G technology is its ultra-low low-latency, which eliminates lag in downloading and uploading files. 5G will change the way we consume content and has the capacity to transform the Nigerian film industry. I look forward to seeing how our filmmakers maximize this technology for the advancement of Nollywood.”