Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen Celebrates Nollywood Greats with ISFF Awards Endowment

Veteran film and television greats, both living and those who have passed on but made indelible marks on the Nigerian film industry, also known as Nollywood, are up for celebration at the International Students’ Film Festival, dedicated to training young ones to be the future of Nigeria’s cinema industry.

With a keen eye to celebrate these all-time veterans of cinema, Edo-born filmmaker, Amb. (Dr.) Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen (aka D’Guvernor), has instituted film awards system to honour and celebrate the living and some fallen heroes of Nollywood whose works continue to resonate with audiences.
The second edition of International Students’ Film Festival (ISFF), a campus-based travelling film festival, is scheduled to take place at the Department of Film and Multimedia Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, from September 16 – 20, 2024 where the living and late legends will be honoured with awards named after them. Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, hosted the festival’s first edition in 2023.

Nollywood ace screenwriter Emem Isong has Emem Isong Misodi Award for Best Screenplay named after her, just as Iyen Agbonifo has Iyen Agbonifo Award or Best Costume category named after her, Cleopatra Starret has Cleopatra Starrets Award for Best Make-Up named after her and Sir, Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion Award for Best film on Culture also named after him. Also, four fallen heroes of the industry are up for honour with awards dedicated to their names. They are Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi of African Independent Television (AIT) for pioneering a television platform for showcasing films and soap operas, Chico Ejiro for his prodigious output as a filmmaker, Sadiq Daba and Enebeli Elebuwa for their pioneering roles as astute actors and Capt. Hosa Okunbo for his role as film financier and major entertainment supporter

Meanwhile, the long awaited nomination list for the students’ film festival, in collaboration with Nollywood National Conference, has been released. The ISFF 2024 jury, led by Dr. Charles Okwuowulu (DGN), a filmmaker and a senior lecturer with both Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Nkwo, Ebonyi State and Gregory University, Uturu, Abia State, observed that there was an avalanche of films coming from professionals rather than the students, noting that his jury team took time to ensure that only student projects were shortlisted for the awards.

While applauding Amb. Imasuen for initiating the International Students’ Film Festival as a training ground for aspiring filmmakers, Dr. Okwuowulu charged students in tertiary institutions both in Nigeria and across the globe to take advantage of this wonderful training/learning platform created by Amb. Imasuen who has made his mark in the Nigerian creative economy. Dr. Okwuowulu said he worked with other six distinguished jurors such as Dr. Gloria Ernest-Samuel, an Associate Professor of Media Studies at Imo State University, Owerri, Dr. Finest Uwaoma of University of Maiduguri, Dr. Richard Illoma of Rivers State University, Dr. Folakemi Ogungbe of Pan Atlantic University, Promise Soyenka (DGN) of the University of Port Harcourt and Joseph Osademe of African Independent Television (AIT) to arrive at the nomination list.

While congratulating the nominees, Festival Director, Mr. Michael Chinda, assured the general public that alliwas set to have a great film harvest in Port Harcourt, and called on all art lovers to be part of the unique film festival that has as theme ‘Unique UNIPORT 2024’. He commended the jurors who he said worked independently towards ensuring that the best films emerged as nominees.

The students’ films nominated for the nine award categories include Le Kadji, Dazed and Adaeze for Best Screenplay; Budge, Adaeze and Score for Iyen Agbonifo Award for Best Costume; Adeaze, Score and Dazed for Cleopatra Award for Best Make-Up; Obiora (Dominic Nweze as Obiora), Budge (Shedrach Sunday as Zazo) and Solitude (Ibinabo Fortune as Kelvin) for Enebeli Elebuwa Memorial Award for Best Actor (male) while for Female actor category, there are Adaeze (Jane Chidindu as Adaeze), Are You Human? (Ekienabor Sarah) and Score (Trinity Ugonabo as Nelo). Also, there’s Sadiq Daba Memorial Award for Best Short Film that has Dazed, Budge and Solitude, Capt. Hosa Okunbo Memorial Award for Best Feature Film with The Pirates, Praeda and Once Upon a Time at Ruth’s as nominees; Chico Ejiro Memorial Award for Best Director and has Budge, Dazed and Solitude as nominations; Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi Memorial Award for Documentary with 40 Years a Memory, The Rise and Ndito-Ufen as nominated films.

Amb. Imasuen said the motivation for setting up the student-based festival is to lend credence to his passion of empowering young people with skills in the industry where he has made a name for himself. He said he doesn’t want empowerment to be a mere slogan, but something that can be made real in the lives of young people who are willing to learn the rudiments of filmmaking. Secondly, he said the award component of the festival is designed as a celebration of both the living and practitioners who are fallen heroes and heroines of the industry, and to point the minds of young people towards emulating their achievements with a view to surpassing them in their craft.

“As the awards indicate, the names of the honourees are attached to them – some are alive and still working while some have passed on,” Amb. Imasuen said. “So this is to celebrate my colleagues who are still alive and to immortalise those who are dead, because we are giving the awards to young minds; this will stay with them and elicit curiosity in their minds to want to know more about these people, whether alive or dead, and be better educated about the industry they are coming into. The idea is to inspire these young filmmakers to be greater than the names attached to the awards given to them.

“So it’s a deliberate decision by me for Nollywood to honour these great men and women who have contributed and are still contributing so much to the growth of our industry by imprinting their names in the minds of these young, aspiring filmmakers, as worthy examples to follow as they come into Nollywood. They now have industry role models to shape their cinematic craft from start. Well, artists don’t die anyway. Those still alive also make good examples for them, too as lifelong mentors.
“But do people have to die before they are honoured? So this is my own way of letting the living know we respect them for their craft and to let the families of our fallen heroes know that we hold them dearly in our heart for the gift of their craft and the resources they gave us while they lived. This is why it’s significant that the awards for these young ones be named after these industry greats, so we don’t forget, for their memories to live on in our hearts for as long as possible, for their labour not to be in vain.”