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Minister lauds Nollywood on Film festival

By NAN
29 November 2016   |   6:21 am
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has commended the organisers of the newly premiered movie “The Wedding Party” for raising Nollywood artistic bar to international level.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has commended the organisers of the newly premiered movie “The Wedding Party” for raising Nollywood artistic bar to international level.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the movie, which is a romantic comedy and a drama film, premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival version held in Lagos.

The Kemi Adetiba-directed movie had some of Africa’s biggest stars led by Richard Mofe-Damijo,
Sola Sobowale, Alibaba, Iretiola Doyle, Banky W and Adesua Etomi, with the stars attending the premiere.

In his remark, Mohammed said the important thing was to see how the creative industry was moving from the margins to become one of the pillars of the economy.

He added that “people are beginning to take the arts more seriously, a lot of things are happening. You can see the major shift that is beginning to happen.

“You can imagine the amount of investment that will go into this film, you can imagine the number of jobs it will create, that’s a challenge to us in government.

“It shows that this industry is sustainable when we provide the right environment in terms of regulatory framework, in terms of laws, in terms of protecting intellectual property.

“What is clear is that the kind of framework the government today is providing the film industry, tourism, arts and the likes, will definitely play to become a better role in the economy”, the minister added.

On his part, Cameron Bailey, the Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival,
said “we are pleased to welcome The Wedding Party by award-winning filmmaker Kemi Adetiba to the Festival.

“We are proud to present it to a global audience. Adetiba has delivered an exciting character-driven film on a grand scale, while putting her own unique spin on a familiar genre.”

Also, the Executive Producer of Ebony Life TV, Mo Abudu, said the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)’s selection of “The Wedding Party” was a true honour.

She said “I can’t think of a better place, or a better global audience for the film’s festival Premiere than this.”

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2 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    [The minister said the government was contributing its quota to curb piracy but there was need to engage the creative industry practitioners.

    “It is clear to the government that we must protect intellectual property of our artists.
    “We have laws already in place but some people are of the view that some of the laws are not even strong enough.]

    All these talks about protective laws for the film makers and other artists what about us – those who send solutions to governments and we do not hear from the authorities anymore for a follow-up. Next is that you hear, i that your solutions are being deployed for use somewhere in Nigeria! And I have called the attention of the Minister through contacts and my postings on the national papers requesting that he does something about my case, folks!My own intellectual property includes the following: –
    1) Option A-4 being used for elections in Nigeria including the finger/ name reader machines
    2) The (TSA) recently adopted by the ADMINISTRATION AS GUARD AGAINST CORRUPTION. – was first raised for the government in 1987, 88, 93 for Chief Shonekan’s Interim Administration and again in that 4th June 2015 letter for the President!
    3) THEN THE NEW MANTRA – ‘CHANGE TO BEGIN WITH ME!’ – IS CONTAINED IN MY CORRESPONDENCE SENT TO THE PRESIDENCY ON 4TH JUNE 2015!

    And What’s more, the whole contributions showing on my website: http://www.virgo-enterprised.com all of which the government is using in Nigeria!

  • Author’s gravatar

    To help you people more can you try in your quiet moments, search for my definition of what a country is and Nigeria with her kind of political leadership vis-a-vis the comments by President M. Buhari about “…..Graduates blowing pipe lines!” Also mone about Budgets and what it means in Nigerian perspective! These two aspects of (as they touch on) Nigeria’s image, you will discover in your search I grouped together in order to tell you something, which nobody has dared to think about in Nigeria! So, try and Google it up (in Vanguard comments) and perhaps send me critique if you consider my observations incompatible/ inappropriate to tell the story (picture) of situational factors and or experience in Nigeria! And Shakespeare cautioned that; There is a lot of good in things ‘evil’ would men observably distill them out, folks!!