The Inside Nollywood has honoured veteran actors, filmmakers, players in creative industry and watchers at the just concluded film festival in Abuja, for their contributions to the progressive story of the nation’s film industry.
The Inside Nollywood International Film Festival Awards (INIFFAA), a 3-days event organized to celebrate the achievements of African creative minds in the entertainment industry, aims at fostering collaboration, celebration of cultural diversity, and also to promote advancement of African cinema on the global stage.
Among the veteran actors that was honored is the popular nollywood actor, Francis Duru, who won the award for the Best Actor of the Year, also Alim Textiles, the most influential youth of the year, Emeka Rollas, outstanding guild leader of the year, Omegbu Onyekwelu, won the award for best sound.
Other winners included veteran filmmaker Lancelot Imasuen, who lifted the award of ‘the Most Stylist Filmmaker’; Emeka Duru, ‘Best Production Manager’; Alex Okonkwo for ‘Best Sound Recordist’ and the iconic film, ’Lami’, was named the ‘Best Film’ while ‘Best Short Film’ award was clinched by ‘Dazed’, among others.
Earlier, the CEO, Inside Nollywood, Muoma Obinna, who expressed his gratitude for the successful completion of the film festival said he looked forward to seeing more elaborate ones for indigenous movies, actors, actresses and producers.
According to him, “the award night was a flagship component of the festival dedicated to celebrating the creativity, hard work and support of stakeholders in the film industry. I want to take this opportunity, as founder of Inside Nollywood International Film Festival, to reflect on the incredible journey in the past 10 years”, he said.
In his goodwill message, the AGN President who was delighted for the honour, described the INIFFAA 2024 as a veritable platform to showcase Nollywood, he said, “On behalf of the AGN, I want to thank and congratulate Inside Nollywood for this impactful journey in the last 10 years,” he said.
Reacting to his prestigious award, Francis Duru noted that every award is a reward for hard work, while expressed joy that three decades later, he was still getting accolades, applauded the organisers for the recognition at the film festival awards.
This year festival marks significant milestone as Inside Nollywood commemorated its ten- year journey of fostering original expression and contributing to the evolution of the Nigerian film industry.