Organizers of Best of Nollywood (BON) awards have announced readiness for the sixth edition of the show, billed to take place on Saturday, October 4, 2014.
Unveiling the nominees at the Press Centre, Government Office, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, last Friday, Founder/ Executive Producer of the awards, Seun Oloketuyi, expressed gratitude to Governor Rotimi Amaechi for his support towards the coming event.
Also announced at the event were the duo of Gbemi Olateru Olagbegi, a popular on-air personality and Nollywood star Fred Amata, as hosts of the show.
Speaking glowingly about the coming event, Oloketuyi said: “It is a day for producers, filmmakers who have worked tirelessly and invested their monies in the year under review to make us happy. It is also to appreciate their hard work and ingenuity to make Nollywood better. Though getting finances to organize the event is very tough, we are focused on what we set out to do. Besides, we are lucky to have people who have always bailed us out at the last minutes.”
On how they arrived at the nominees, Niran Adedokun, head of the screening committee, said the exercise took more than three months of critical reviews.
According to him, about 150 films were entered for the 32 professional categories this year, out of which 23 were short films, while 20 were disqualified for various reasons, ranging from inability to meet the terms and conditions set by the organizers to failure to submit the required number of copies.
Interestingly, a new award category has also been introduced by the organizers. One of the categories targets development of indigenous movies in the three main Nigerian languages: Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo.
The other two, according to Adedokun, are Best Television Series award and Best Documentary award.
Also to be expected at the October 4 event is the plan by the organizers to honour the late filmmaker, Amaka Igwe, for her immense contributions to the growth of Nollywood.
“We havetaken it upon ourselves to continue to remember the late Amaka Igwe; so, we have unanimously endowed the award for the Director of the Year in her name. The award category will now be known as the Amaka Igwe Director of the Year category,” said Adedokun.
Receiving the guests at the Government House, Chief of Staff, Kingsley Okocha, noted that the relationship between the State and BON has been reciprocal. “When a lot of people thought there was insecurity foisted on us circumstantially and when they thought a situation of self-help had been foisted on us, we said it was not true. We kept saying there was peace and tranquility in the state. But the organizers of BON had the opportunity of coming here to join us in our programmes. They moved from street to street with us to the extent that the Governor agreed to the proposal to host a dinner. So, that allayed the fear of people who thought there was no security in the state. As a result, we were able to regain our lost glory, as nobody was kidnapped or harassed. Therefore, when you came to our rescue, I don’t see why we should not reciprocate.”