NIF SUMMIT 2022 partners with the British Film Institute and renowned speakers including Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe MBE, Co-Founding director, EP at BUFF Business Group / BUFF Studios.
Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe MBE is the founder of the BAFTA accredited British Urban Film Festival formed in 2005.
In December 2019 it was announced in the 2020 New Year’s honours list that he was to be awarded with an MBE for services to the Black and Minority Ethnic film industry. He received his medal from HRH Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace in March 2020.
In a career which has spanned 20 years to date, Emmanuel has worked for Channels Television News in London, BFM (Black Filmmaker Magazine), and the Screen Nation awards, has written for both The Voice newspaper and The TV Collective, and has also produced and presented film programmes for Colourful Radio and Choice FM UK. He was previously headhunted for the post of head of cinema at the Barbican.
He founded the British Urban Film Festival in July 2005 to showcase urban independent cinema in the absence of any such state-sponsored activity in the UK (at the time). To date, the festival has screened over 500 films, facilitating broadcast platforms for a majority of Black and urban independent writers, actors, actresses, producers and directors on Apple TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, the BBC i-player, Channel 4, Community Channel (now Together TV), Showcase TV and London Live. In October 2020, the festival was granted BAFTA qualifying status for British Short Films.
In February 2018, he co-founded BUFF Originals (now known as BUFF Studios), launched to act as the production and distribution arm of the British Urban Film Festival. Its’ debut feature – NO SHADE – was released in UK cinemas in November 2018, making director Clare Anyiam-Osigwe the 6th Black British female director (to date) to secure theatrical distribution in over 120 years. In December 2020, Clare (his wife) won an African Movie Academy award for NO SHADE. Emmanuel’s directorial debut is the feature length documentary ABSOLUTELY MARVELLOUS which introduces audiences to the world of Marvel Opara, the blind mother of British-Nigerian heavyweight boxer Joe Joyce. BUFF Studios has several Film and TV projects in development and pre-production, having successfully pitched their slate at Pavilion Afriques in Cannes, May 2022 where the pair met with financiers and investors from Cyprus, Budapest, the Carribean, Africa and United Kingdom.
Emmanuel will be joining the BFI-led delegation in-person in Ikeja, Nigeria on two panels:
Tues 30 Aug 10am – 11am : Producers Spotlight
Tues 30 Aug 11am – 12pm : NIFS Film Finance Conference moderated by NIF Founder Ijeoma Onah.
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