Month: March 2014

Matthew McConaughey

Actor in a Leading Role

 

Jared Leto

Actor in a Supporting Role

Cate Blanchett 

Actress in a Leading Role

 

Actress in a Supporting Role

Cinematography

 

Directing

 

Documentary Feature

 

Documentary Short Subject

Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger 

Film Editing

Foreign Language Film

 

Makeup and Hair styling

 

Music (Original Score)

 

Short Film (Animated)

 

Short Film (Live Action)

Sound Mixing

 Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk and Neil Corbould

Visual Effects

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Spike Jonze

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Being the first media “Supple Magazine from Nigeria” to be at the Oscar was a think of joy.After my accreditation by the press section I was set for the biggest stage in the film business. I just can’t express the excitement having such a wonderful experience and will not wait to be there again in 2015.

Our Nigerian film industry must know that film business is not practiced in isolation, we can’t be clamming that we have a large film industry without creating and supporting platforms that will attract other professionals from all parts of the world. Lupita Yong’o exploits at the Oscars have not only helped to attract more attention to Kenyan film industry but also more confidence to their film practitioners.

A LESSON FOR NOLLYWOOD INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE FILM MAKERS

This is the category Nollywood can enter for the Oscars with films produced on our local languages but must meet  all professional standards.

Foreign Language Film

The Broken Circle Breakdown” Belgium

“The Great Beauty” Italy (Winner)

“The Hunt” Denmark

“The Missing Picture” Cambodia

“Omar” Palestine

A  LESSON FOR NOLLYWOOD UPCOMING ACTORS.

Given the class of actresses like Julia Roberts, who could have given Lupita Nyong’o a chance? Some three years ago Lupita should have been dreaming of being as popular as one of the Nollywood Stars but today, African actors want to be like her.

Start now to look beyond what have been achieved in our local set ups and believing in you so that when that break through role comes, use it very well.

Rachael Mwanza of Congo collected the Silver Bear of Berlin Film Festival in 2012 and also walked the red carpet of Oscar too. She was less than 20 years; she played a major role in the film “War Witch”.Being at the Oscar should be the dream of any professional because that is the ultimate in this business.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Sally Hawkins in “Blue Jasmine”

Jennifer Lawrence in “American Hustle”

Lupita Nyong’o in “12 Years a Slave” (Winner from Kenya )

Julia Roberts in “August: Osage County”

June Squibb in “Nebraska”

• Daya Kishan Thussu, Professor of International Communication and Co-Director of India Media Centre, University of Westminster

The second panelists deliberated on :

Confucius Institutes: The Globalization of Chinese Soft Power

The Confucius Institutes are a platform for Chinese cultural diplomacy through language learning and cultural exchanges. This interdisciplinary panel of experts discussed the Confucius Institutes’ operations the United States and South Africa. This panel on the Confucius Institutes is co-sponsored by the USC U.S.-China Institute.

Below are the professionals that took part during the second section:

• Clayton Dube, Executive Director, USC U.S.-China Institute at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism (chair)

• Falk Hartig, Post-doctoral Researcher, Frankfurt Inter-Centre-Programme on new African-Asian Interactions AFRASO at Frankfurt University, Germany

• Jennifer Hubbert, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Lewis & Clark College

 • John Layton, Assistant Superintendent, Lafayette School Corporation

 • R.S. Zaharna, Associate Professor, School of Communication and Affiliate Associate Professor, School of International Service, American University

The third section was on

GREAT Britain in Emerging Markets:

How was Great Britain’s global campaign received in emerging economies? “This lunch conversation  discussed  the challenges and successes”

A representative from the British Prime Minister made his  presentation

• Andrew Pike, Deputy Director, Prime Ministers’ Director of Strategic Partnership for the GREAT Campaign

 • Jay Wang, Director, USC Center on Public Diplomacy and Associate Professor, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism

The forth section was on

Dialogues Through Film

Film festivals are flourishing around the world, yet their role in fostering cultural exchange remains under-examined. This panel examined how film festivals are a platform for creating shared cultural space.

Below are the professionals that deliberated on this section :

• Nicholas J. Cull, Director, Master of Public Diplomacy Program, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism (chair)

 • Samuel Douek, Director, HOLA Mexico Film Festival

 • Vladek Juszkiewicz, Executive Director, Polish Film Festival Los Angeles

 • Hope Obioma Opara,President & Founder, Eko International Film Festival.Lagos,Nigeria

 • Yasemin Yilmaz, Co-Founder, L.A. Turkish Film Festival

The Dialogue on Film was the section which Mr Hope Obioma Opara (President Ekoiff) participated as a panelist.

Cultural Diplomacy is the exchange of ideas, information, values, systems, traditions, beliefs, and other aspects of culture, with the intention of fostering mutual understanding”.   This has at times been talked about as involving the use of soft power as opposed to hard power.

Culture is the way of life of a people. It consists of conventional patterns of thought and behaviour, including values, beliefs, rules of conduct, political organization, economic activity, and the like, which are passed on from one generation to the next by learning – and not by biological inheritance.

So many films are submitted for screening in every film festival and these films can be documentary, short film of a different genre, which the story line can based on religion, politics or culture, it can act as effective instrument for a positive change in terms of solving problems.

Members of the Delegates

Films are definitely a pathway through which Cultural Diplomacy and international relations can be conducted. In the case of the arts, and particularly in the case of ‘films as vehicles of Cultural Diplomacy’, it seems that soft power can contribute to the relations between countries and benefit both the private and public sector of a country’s economy.

Film allows the public to see a different side of the native country, a side which more than often shows the true realities rather than what the media want us to see.

 Audience