The organisers of Coal City Film Festival have named award winning writer and filmmaker, Jude Idada, as jury chairman of the 2024 edition of Coal City Film Festival. The management also announced the official selection of 41 films for the festival, which is in its fourth edition. Hailed as the most celebrated film event in South East, festival founder and Executive Director, Uche Agbo, stated in the press statement that the ’41 films’ were selected from over a hundred movies submitted from across 33 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, South and Nothern America, as well as the Middle East.
“For the fourth edition, we have appointed Nigerian Writer/Director, Jude Idada, to chair the Coal City Film Festival jury,” Agbo said, adding that other members of the five-man jury include, Chichi Nwaorah, executive producer and very famous for her movie, Shanty Town; Theo Ukpaa, filmmaker/director and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Nigerian domiciled Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF). Dr.Charles Okwuowulu, a senior lecturer and immediate past Head of Department, Theatre Arts, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State and Prof. Atul Marewad, a filmmaker and scholar from India.
Coal City Film Festival, which holds yearly, is dedicated to celebrating African cinema at the heart of South East, while allowing local and international delegates to savour the diverse, bubbling film, tourism and hospitality experiences in the historical coal city. The film festival had its maiden edition in March 2021 and it has successfully hosted three editions. According to Agbo, chairman of the Nigerian Film Festivals Association, the umbrella body housing all film festivals in Nigeria, “the vision of Coal City Film Festival is to open the doors of South East Nigeria to the rest of the world through film. The fourth edition of the festival is proposed to hold at the popular serene environment of Nike Lake Resort and Hotel from March 21 to 23, 2024. The theme for this year is ‘Cultural Renaissance’.
Agbo said the theme would centre on how to utilise the powerful medium of film to rekindle a sense of pride in our heritage, rejuvenate and invigorate Nigeria’s cultural landscape while encouraging innovative expressions of the country’s diverse traditions and customs, including conversations on technology, fashion, finance, health and culture, and how film can be used to improve these sectors.
In the words of Agbo, “Nigeria needs more conversation around non-oil revenue generation and the creative industry is a veritable avenue for such. Hence, it’s important that attention is paid on how films could be major indices to trigger other positive indices in the culture, tourism and creative industry.”
This edition will feature events such as, 72-hours Script to Screen Marathon workshops for rookie filmmakers and actors, where they would be made to make short films in 72-hours with the best short film receiving a prize from the sponsors, master classes, panel discussions, palm wine and bush meat roundtable as well as South East Entertainment and Media Night, designed to encourage local entertainers and creative. Other slated programmes include, networking sessions, pitching sessions to potential sponsors, parties, gala night and awards ceremony.
