Eastern Nigerian International Film Festival holds maiden edition

Eastern Nigerian International Film Festival holds maiden edition

The maiden edition of the Eastern Nigeria International Film Festival (ENIFF) Nigeria was held virtually from Wednesday, November 4th, to Saturday, November 7th, 2020.

This first edition of the film festival started with an opening ceremony hosted by radio presenter and actor, Lorenzo Menakaya.

The highlight of the opening ceremony was the breaking of kolanut performed by the veteran actor and broadcaster, Chief Pete Edochie, MON.

ENIFF founders and directors, Ujuaku Akukwe-Nwakalor and Chris Odili, said that 3101 films were submitted from 131 countries for this maiden edition. 40 films from 22 countries screened this year including the American Oscar Award winning film, “Skin”, the South African documentary “A New Country” which was the opening film and Mexican masterpiece “ANYA”, which was the closing film.

There were industry sessions tagged “Ideas @ ENIFF” by Nollywood veteran Pete Edochie, British-Canadian Actor Mark Holden, African film curator Nadia Denton, Serial entrepreneur Obi Asika, digital strategist Yvonne Chioma Mbanefo and South African artist, Bandile Koketso Mbuli. Different categories of awards were presented at the closing ceremony, as decided by the jury headed by film scholar, Dr. Ezinne Ezepue.

The ENIFF 2020 Award winners are:

Best Animation

Gon, the Little Fox -Japan

Best Documentary Short

Sunset in Makoko -Nigeria

Best Documentary Feature

Bassil’ora – Italy

Best Narrative Short

Skin – United States

Best Nigerian Film

Blue

Best Narrative Feature

Anya – Mexico

Best Female Performance

María Fernanda Tovar (Anya) – Mexico

Best Male Performance

Anish Gosavi (Tak-Tak) – India

Best Director

Mika Johnson (Confessions of a Box Man) – Czech Republic (WINNER)

Best Film

Skin–United States

Special Jury Prize

Two Autumns in Paris – Venezuela

Audience Choice Award

Journey to Kenya – Sudan.

Eastern Nigerian International Film Festival holds maiden edition