Organisers of the Abuja International Film Festival (AIFF) are still accepting entries until July 31.
The festival founded by filmmaker Fidelis Duker will take place from October 4 to 7 in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The genres for which filmmakers are expected to make submissions are: features, short documentaries, experimental and animation. Interested participants can get more details at the festival’s website.
Duker once told our reporter that his company, Nafifo Ventures, pioneered the festival circuit in Nigeria with AIFF being the oldest apart from the National Film Festival that has been renamed Zuma, organised by the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), which had its first edition in 1992.
“Prior to that time, I had been invited by the British government to attend a training programme at the BBC in Scotland in 2001, which was basically Edinburg Film Festival. I was there for about six weeks to study the way the festival is run.
“When I came back, I felt festivals are not even government-run. If you look at it very well, governments only create the enabling environment for festivals to thrive. From Berlin to Cannes, they are all non-governmental in scope. So, I felt there was a need for us to create a festival in Nigeria. That was why in 2003 we started this plan and by 2004 we birthed with the first edition,” he had said.
He explained that, at that time, it was a travelling festival, in the sense that while they were in Abuja, there were no cinemas, so they had to make do with a projector.
“We were projecting the festival films at different locations in Abuja, in hotels and so on. Why we stayed this long is because one, we came into the business of film festival not specifically for money-making. It was my own way of contributing. I felt I needed to create a legacy, so that even when I am no more in the business, when you mention my name you will remember me with the festival. And I felt that though I had made so many films, let me create a niche, and that was how we started the festival in 2004,” said he.
Another reason, he said, is because of the passion he has for the industry in which he has worked most of his life.
“Interestingly, what I have found out over the years is that the festival has also given me a wider understanding of the challenges of filmmakers, particularly the younger filmmakers who have nowhere to screen their films.
“We found out that what we were seeing in Idumota in those days were feature films made by commercial filmmakers. These young boys from the film schools, who had brilliant ideas, could not screen their films and we never got to see these films. We felt this festival will be an opportunity for them to screen their films. People should see your film and make comments, whether negative or positive. We felt this was a very good medium where we could do that,” he added.