By Shaibu Husseini

All Set For CANEX Weekend in Lagos
All is set for 2026 edition of the Creative Africa Nexus Weekend, otherwise called CANEX WKND 2026. Promoted as Africa’s largest gathering of creative and cultural industries, CANEX WKND 2026, which holds between November 5 and 8, 2026, is being hosted by African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in partnership with the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, and will bring together participants from across Africa, the Caribbean and the wider diaspora including creatives, investors, policymakers, financiers, buyers and industry leaders to connect talent with finance, markets, partnerships and commercial opportunities. The four-day event will be held at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts, National Theatre Complex, Iganmu, Lagos, and will provide a platform to support the development, commercialization and expansion of Africa’s creative and cultural industries, with a focus on improving access to finance, markets, skills, partnerships and investment opportunities. To be held under the theme, One People, United in Culture, Creating for the World: From FESTAC ’77 to CANEX’27, the programme will feature activities across film, music, fashion, literature, visual arts, gastronomy and sport, combining business and investment discussions with showcases, exhibitions, masterclasses and networking opportunities. Key programme components will include the CANEX Finance Summit and Deal Room, CANEX Shorts Film Competition, Jollof Wars Competition, CANEX Music Factory Songwriting Camp, Junior Chefs Competition, Fashion Show and Awards Night, CANEX Mega Concert and Legends Football Match. The Lagos edition will serve as a test run for the fifth edition of the biennial Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2027), which Nigeria will host in November 2027. IATF2027 is expected to provide a broader continental marketplace for African businesses, including creative enterprises, to expand commercial partnerships and access new markets. Registrations are open – https://apo-opa.co/4xQ44Wm

Pitcher Showcases 2026 Winners, Introduces New Categories For 2027
THE 2026 Pitcher showcase and award presentations which held on September 30 brought together award winners, special guests, facilitators of the Future Pitcher Student Academy and Young Pitcher Academy, and jurors of the Future Pitcher and Young Pitcher Competitions for a special in-person celebration of excellence. The event served as a gathering of the Pitcher Festival to spotlight top winners of the 2026 Pitcher Awards and formally present awards to recipients of the prestigious Pitcher Special Awards, while also recognising outstanding achievers from the Young Pitcher Competition and the Future Pitcher Competition. Among the distinguished guests were Chief Marketing Officer, Alternative Bank and Second Vice President of ADVAN, Maurice Igugu, and Brenda Nwagwu, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of QVT and President of MIPAN. Both industry leaders joined the award presentations, with Maurice Igugu presenting awards to winners from the Pitcher academies and competitions. Opening the event, Dr. Nnamdi Ndu, Chairman of the Pitcher Festival, reflected on the importance of talent development as the foundation of the Pitcher community. He described the Future Pitcher Student Academy (FPSA) and the Young Pitcher Academy (YPA) as the programmes that sit “at the very heart of the Pitcher Festival,” emphasising their role in developing talent and building the future of the creative, marketing, advertising, and communications industries across the region. Also at the event, Dr. Ndu announced that beginning 2027, the former Channel Category will be replaced by two specialised categories- Media Strategy and Data Category, which celebrates the strategic thinking, audience intelligence, data analysis, and cross-channel planning that drive media effectiveness and the Media Execution Category, which honours outstanding deployment of media channels, placement excellence, contextual relevance, and executional craft. 2027 will also welcome AI innovation to the Pitcher awards as Dr. Ndu disclosed. Beginning in 2027, AI-focused subcategories will be introduced within the Care, Craft, Culture, Digital, Entertainment, Heritage, and Media Strategy & Data categories. These new additions will celebrate work where artificial intelligence has played a meaningful role in enhancing creativity, storytelling, audience engagement, strategic planning, production, or problem-solving. The 2027 Pitcher Awards will open for entries on November 1, 2026. More information can be sourced www.PitcherFestival.com

TIFFCOM Unveils Full Line-Up
THE Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) has unveiled its full lineup at Spiral Hall in Tokyo, announcing the films in its five competitive sections along with many other highlights of its 39th edition, in a spirited ceremony spotlighting TIFF’s commitment to the past, present and future of cinema. Guided by this year’s theme, Connecting — Cinema Connects Us to the World Beyond, TIFF will create opportunities for filmmakers and film lovers to connect in a diversity of ways. The 10-day festival, running from October 26 through November 4, will feature over 200 films and extensive related events in the Hibiya-Yurakucho-Marunouchi-Ginza area of Tokyo. As in prior years, TIFF’s opening Red Carpet is scheduled to take place on Hibiya-Nakadori Avenue. TIFFCOM, the affiliated marketplace for film and audiovisual content, will be held concurrently for three days, from October 28 to 30. The 39th TIFF will open with the Asian premiere of Takahisa Zeze’s much-anticipated Sukiyaki, the untold story behind the historic song that topped the Billboard charts and remains one of the world’s best-selling tunes; and close with the Korean zombie thriller Colony, directed by Yeon Sang-ho of Train to Busan (2016). The festival’s Centerpiece will be Yamazaki Takashi’s Godzilla Minus Zero, the epic sequel from the Oscar®-winning Visual Effects team behind Godzilla Minus One. Full programme can be sourced at tiffcom.jp/en/