Category Archives: Featured

Super start Music Legend  Lionel Richie’s daughter  Sofia Richie engaged  with boyfriend Elliot Grainge.

She’s 23 and he’s 27 and the son of Sir Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music Group. 

Universal Movie Awards second edition entry is still going with submissions streaming from all over the world. See link to submit your film  – https://filmfreeway.com/UNIVERSALMOVIEAWARDS

Below are list of countries we have already received films for the second edition of the award event slated to hold in November 26,2022.

United States, Nigeria, United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, Russian Federation, India, Ukraine, Uganda, Turkey, Singapore, Sierra Leone, Portugal, Poland, Namibia, Kenya, Italy, Guadeloupe, Ghana, Germany, France, Ethiopia, China, Belarus, Austria, Australia

Many years ago, I heard this unsettling, heart rending story about a young girl preparing for her university education.

Brilliant. Beautiful.

She was violated; sexually abused by her own relation. That led to different other unfortunate incidents that caused her self-esteem, her future, her dreams, her essence, and sadly put an end to her education.

She ended up an attendant in a local bar and became an object of sexual pleasure to some of the customers who easily lured her.

Some thought she was loose, treated her as a prostitute. Indeed she had become loose. She was lost! Lost to what it meant to be a girl, lost to the virtue and pride that comes with being a woman. She was lost. Damaged and reduced to an object of ridicule.

But behind that pseudo veil of warmth and smile she put on her face in order to serve the bar costumers and earn her wage, was that distraught, pained, hopeless, morbid emptiness, and even suicidal burden that taunted her.

Her story haunted me for days. It felt like the pain of razor cuts all over my body. It left a certain sour taste in my mouth each time I thought of her story. The fact that there was no happy ending at the time made it the more excruciating.

The writer in me revolted.

I felt the strong urge to retell the story, to bring it to the front burner, to give it a happy ending and more importantly to give her a voice.

Though I never got to meet her, I strongly desired to change the ending of the ugly narrative (at least in my mind) from one that was a victim to one that found her voice, got back control, regained her self-esteem, spoke her truth and rose from the ashes of shame and ridicule to the place of power and inspiration, a happy ending not only for her, but for every person; especially every girl or woman who has been a victim of abuse.

So I wrote a story inspired by her. I wrote the screenplay and titled it CHATROOM. www.chatroomthemovie.com was made into a movie.

We had an exclusive screening at the request and at the residence of the British Deputy High Commissioner in commemoration of International Women’s Day andd now, I am delighted to have you all see it.

As we celebrate Mother’s Day , I want you – every woman – to know that you are special, you are powerful and you matter.

CHATROOM is live on afrocinema.tv and can be watched from anywhere in the world from April 15, 2022.

CHATROOM features award winning stars; Omawumi Megbele, Nengi Adoki, Odunlade Adekola, Tony Umez, Ibrahim Suleiman, Sambasa Nzeribe, Rykardo Agbor, Vivian Anani, Damilare Kuku, Joshua Ojo, ace comedian Akpororo with cameo appearances by Victor Okhai and veteran TV host and broadcaster Adesuwa Onyenokwe.

Welcome to the CHATROOM!

WORKSHOP TITLE

DAY 1: Cinematography with Canon Technology

DAY 2: Canon Cinema Solution & Workflow

The Canon/Ekoiff film industry workshop will hold during the festival event.

The focus of the workshop is on Canon Camera products e.g.  EOS C500MKll, EOS C300MK3,  EOS  C70 and Cinema Prime Lenses and also how to operate   them to achieve best picture and sound qualities in tune with recent online platforms and cinemas. Discount available on any camera and lenses buy.

The workshop is strictly for Cinematographers, Directors and Producers.

Date:  9th & 10th March 2022

Time: 10.30am prompt.

Venue:  Silverbird Cinemas  133 Ahmadu Bello Way Lagos

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European Film Market 2022: Exhibition Spaces in the Gropius Bau and in the Marriott Hotel Largely Booked Out / Under the title SHAPING CHANGE “EFM Industry Sessions” Call on the Film and Media Industry to Jointly Shape the Future

The EFM will take place from February 10 to 17, 2022 under the motto “It all (re)starts here”. The “EFM Industry Sessions” will discuss the three core themes Future, Diversity & Inclusion and Sustainable Development in the four programme strands “Producers”, “Distribution”, “Documentary” and “Series.

For more information : https://www.berlinale.de/en/press/press-releases/detail_111950.html

The Homage section of the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival will be dedicated to French film and stage actor Isabelle Huppert, who will be awarded an Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement. In conjunction with the Award Ceremony on February 15, 2022 at the Berlinale Palast, the festival will screen as Berlinale Special Gala À propos de Joan (About Joan, dir: Laurent Larivière). Huppert is one of the most versatile actors in the world, and has played an impressive range of characters in almost 150 cinema and television productions.

Isabelle Huppert has been closely linked with the film festival for many years and starred in seven Competition films to date. She was first a guest in Berlin with La vengeance d’une femme (A Woman’s Revenge, dir: Jacques Doillon). Director François Ozon cast her in his dark musical comedy 8 Femmes (8 Women) as an unprepossessing woman who emerges in the end as a confident beauty. The ensemble cast was awarded a Silver Bear for outstanding artistic accomplishment. In L’Avenir (Things to Come), she also plays a woman re-discovering her freedom as a philosophy teacher in a failing marriage. Director Mia Hansen-Løve won the Silver Bear as Best Director for the film.

“We are proud to welcome Isabelle Huppert back to the festival,” say Berlinale directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, “the Honorary Golden Bear may seem like a natural progression in a career without equal, since Isabelle Huppert is one of the few artists recognised with acting awards at all major film festivals. But Isabelle Huppert is more than a celebrated actor — she is an uncompromising artist who doesn’t hesitate to take risks and flout mainstream trends. Awarding her our most prestigious prize is to accentuate cinema as an art form, independent and unconditional. We often see actors as tools in the hands of filmmakers, but Isabelle Huppert is a clear example that the dynamic can be a true exchange. Actors can be the true engine of creating not only emotions, but also concepts of cinema.”

Isabelle Huppert began studying acting at the age of 14, and later attended the Conservatoire nationale supérieur d’art dramatique in Paris. She began her career on stage  and made her screen debut with Faustine et le bel été (Faustine and the Beautiful Summer, dir: Nina Companeez). Huppert’s first appearance in an international production was in the film Rosebud (dir: Otto Preminger). Two years later, her starring performance as the shy young woman Béatrice in Claude Goretta’s La Dentellière (The Lacemaker) won her the BAFTA as Most Promising Newcomer.

Huppert early on came to the attention of a  host of top filmmakers, such as Jean-Luc Godard and Bertrand Tavernier. Her first turn for Godard was as the star of his Sauve qui peut (la vie) (Every Man for Himself).  Other world-renowned directors soon seized on Huppert’s diverse acting talents, including Olivier Assayas, Catherine Breillat, Patrice Chéreau, Claire Denis, Andrzej Wajda, and Joachim Trier, as well as American filmmakers such as Curtis Hanson, Hal Hartley, Ira Sachs, and David O. Russell. Italian filmmakers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani gave her the lead in their film Le affinità elettive (Elective Affinities) and she was part of the ensemble in Marco Bellocchio’s Bella Addormentata (Dormant Beauty).

French acclaimed director Claude Chabrol cast Isabelle Huppert in a total of seven films, with each character as mutable and complex as the next,  beginning with the title role in Violette Nozière. That garnered her her first Palme D’Or for Best Actress at the Cannes film festival. Huppert and Sandrine Bonnaire played a pair of homicidal friends in the director’s La Cérémonie, a role that won her a César. Huppert’s final collaboration with Chabrol was her complex portrayal of a powerful judge in L’ivresse du pouvoir (Comedy of Power), which premiered in Competition at the Berlinale. 

The actors film career has also been shaped by her work with Austrian director Michael Haneke, with whom she has made four movies.  Her outstanding lead performance in his controversial 2001 drama La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher) brought her accolades as Best Actress in Cannes and at the European Film

Awards, among others. Beginning with her appearance in Brillante Mendoza’s Captive, shown in Competition in Berlin, Huppert has increasingly worked with Asian directors. That same year, she was in Hong Sang-soo’s Da-reun na-ra-e-seo (In Another Country), playing three different women who all have the same name.

Huppert has also made successful films with other German-language directors and actors. She appeared alongside Hanna Schygulla in Storia di Piera (The Story of Piera) directed by Marco Ferreri. And she took on the lead as the nameless writer who increasingly loses touch with reality in the film adaptation of Ingeborg Bachmann’s Malina (dir: Werner Schroeter), winning the German Film Prize. She was top-billed in Swiss director Ursula Meier’s Home.

Isabelle Huppert has been nominated for the French film prize César more than any other actress in France, and has twice won one.  Her virtuoso acting style has also brought her two Palmes D’Or at Cannes. She has appeared in more than 20 films shown in competition there — yet another record. She won a Golden Globe as Best Actress for her work in the thriller Elle (dir: Paul Verhoeven). That role as a successful businesswoman who takes revenge on her rapist also resulted in her first Academy Award nomination.

In addition to her successful onscreen career, Isabelle Huppert also continues working on stage and has been awarded the Europe Theater Prize, among others. After premiering the French version of Orlando, she took to the stage under Robert Wilson’s direction once again as the glacial marchioness Merteuil in Heiner Müller’s Quartett. She was equally brilliant in Sarah Kane’s play 4.48 Psychosis staged by Claude Régy. A guest performance of that play in Berlin marked the first time that Huppert appeared on a German stage, entrancing audiences with her intense portrayal.

The French-German-Irish co-production À propos de Joan (About Joan) directed by Laurent Larivière, which stars Huppert alongside Lars Eidinger, will be released in Germany in 2022.

The Homage films:

La Dentellière (The Lacemaker), France / FRG / Switzerland, 1977, Claude Goretta

Sauve qui peut (la vie) (Every Man for Himself), France / Switzerland / FRG / Austria, 1980, Jean-Luc Godard

La Cérémonie, France / Germany, 1995, Claude Chabrol

La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher), France / Austria / Germany, 2001, Michael Haneke

8 Femmes (8 Women), France / Italy, 2002, François Ozon

L’Avenir (Things to Come), France / Germany, 2016, Mia Hansen-Løve

Elle, France / Germany / Belgium, 2016, Paul Verhoeven

The Homage is mounted under the aegis of the Deutsche Kinemathek.

Submission is open for the Second edition of Universal Movie Awards

Click link to Submit your film to 2nd Edition Universal Movie Awards 2022

https://filmfreeway.com/UNIVERSALMOVIEAWARDS

https://filmmakers.festhome.com/festival/universal-movie-awards

https://www.wfcn.co/festival/https-www-wfcn-co-festival-universalmovieawards

Deadline July 31,2022

By Prof Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

There are times when one’s workplace is akin to a war front. That is, there are always battles to be fought, won or lost. With each loss or victory, enemies are created. It does not matter that the victor was right. Once he wins a battle, he creates enemies. And makes a few friends perhaps. Most of the battles are not necessary. They are often petty. Divisive. Deadly. They are not always strictly in the line of duty. They are not on principles such as what suits the organization best or what approach would be less challenging for the group. The battles emanate from petty jealousy, self-aggrandizement, inflated ego, and envy. Such battles affect both men and women. They are often deadly. They sometimes result in backbiting, planting evil stories, spreading false rumours, backstabbing, gossiping to the Chief Executive, and outright lies against persons. In African countries, sometimes the use of juju and other diabolic means such as enchantment and witchcraft are not ruled out. Ask pastors what their ears hear from adherents!

Sadly, it is not only in workplaces that envy exists. It exists in any group of persons assembled or related for any cause- familial, political, religious or commercial. Sometimes, in a church or mosque, petty jealousy snowballs into a conflagration and people change the location of worship. A pastor or a member becomes casualty sometimes. Faith is undermined. When petty jealousy creeps into church administration, God and His benevolent guiding principles are forgotten by the combatants- they fight to finish. In a family, the man who is the only successful person in life needs divine help to save him from wicked arrows from siblings or cousins. Have you witnessed some deadly intra-family fights resulting from jealousy and greed and small-mindedness? Sometimes it is so bad that even in death enmity continues! Truly, Jesus Christ, the Righteous declared: a man’s foes shall be they of his own household!

Sometimes envy and petty jealousy also creep into relationships among friends. It is often said that twenty friends cannot play together for twenty years! This saying becomes meaningful when you see a friend gradually become an enemy through word and deed. Except you are perceptive, you may not realize the slide or degeneration or transmutation in time. It slips through snippets of statements attributed to supposed friends which filter into your ears through third parties. For example, it was at the wedding ceremony of my son that I realized that one of such fellows, a crafty, wily devil, was a friend no more! Other manifestations followed. But it’s better that one knows his enemies, what the Pentecostals call ‘friendly enemies’ and decide on how to relate with them!

Envy of one for the other is as old as man on earth. It accounts for the first recorded murder on earth if the Bible is our guide. Cain killed his brother Abel. Abel, we are told, had offered a better sacrifice than that of Abel. God accepted Abel’s. Cain’s sacrifice was rejected because it was ill-conceived. In the Abel-Cain case, there was sibling rivalry. And as we know, sibling rivalry still exists in families across the world. It manifests in different ways especially when one or some are more successful in life than others. It is in poor families. It is in rich families. Some siblings have sworn never to set eyes on each other forever! Can you beat that? Children from the same womb? Indeed, that desire to maim, destroy or kill a rival is still very much with man.

In the office, it gets worse as people rise in their career. The top is usually slim. In an organization only one person gets the top job. But before you get there, there are battles. There are many people who could get the plum job. Sometimes, the set criteria point in the direction of one person. In Nigeria, if that person is not from the favoured group, there is no guarantee that they would get the job. As a result, there is intense jostling. For example, where there are five deputy directors, seniority is decided by date of first engagement or promotion. The person who is second in line may have vaulting ambition and may resort to elimination means to clear the path for himself. This could be dangerous. There have been too many mysterious and sudden deaths when there is a struggle for a position.

Sometimes envy arises not from what a target had done or said. It arises from the evil heart of the other man. It is involuntary sometimes. Why you? Why not me? They seem to ask no one in particular. It can also be planned and schemed over a period of time. If we remember that not everyone is happy with our success in life, perhaps we would be more circumspect in revealing plans to so-called associates and friends. In some instances, small-minded friends or associates would simply be interested in embarrassing or maiming you once they think or perceive or see that you are ahead socially and financially. Nollywood Films often depict aspects of envy and jealousy among friends, families and associates. Although often presented in a melodramatic style, the incident of a successful man dying in mysterious circumstances after extended family meetings or a man falling ill just when it is time to climb the final step of the ladder is as common as it is as scary in typical African settings. This by way no way suggest that there are no good friends!

As much as possible, one must be conscious of people around them as they make career growth. Too much disclosure could be deadly. Plans should be kept to oneself. Sharing food or drinking office tea are opportunities for some wicked actions. Our people say that food that has been ingested is difficult to vomit. So, as much as possible, rising persons should be careful of their drinks and food. In extreme cases, rivals, known and unknown, resort to physical elimination. For this reason, travel plans should be kept close to the chest. Above all, prayers of protection are essential in a country as ours in which God is worshipped on Sundays and ignored during the week by millions. When a workplace or church environment becomes toxic, if we can let us move to another branch. If it is in church of course there are laid down principles about inviting the person for a discussion, getting a third party involved and treating the person like a gentile. But a change of environment or avoiding proximity is a practical way of reducing danger.

The final point to be made is that nemesis awaits anyone who schemes evil against an innocent person, whether at the workplace or in the family, in church, mosque or business premises. Sadly, workers in the universities, including some professors, are not excluded from this penchant for destroying people through all kinds of evil schemes, means and shenanigans. Indeed, one professor was once reported to have said to a colleague during a squabble: ‘remember that you have only one child!

In all of this, we all must remember Emerson’s observation, made popular by Thriller Writer James Hadley Chase, that ‘nemesis, is that recoil of nature, never to be guided against, that ever surprises the most wary transgressor! Anybody who destroys another will pay for it ultimately.