Seventy local and foreign films will be screened at this year’s edition of Lagos International Film Festival (AIFF), which holds from October 9 to October 13 at Silverbird Galleria, Victoria Island, Lagos and Sheraton Hotel, Abuja respectively.
In a chat with Entertainer, festival founder, Fidelis Duker reveals: “This year’s festival has as its theme: ‘Film As A Tool For National Security and Patriotism’. The festival will reward excellence in 15 competitive categories with five special recognition awards to deserving Nigerians for their contributions to the development of the movie industry. The awardees will be announced at the nomination party scheduled for August 30.”
Previous editions of the festival had witnessed participation from delegates from over 40 countries including the United Kingdom, Ghana, South Africa, China, Japan, Niger, USA, Poland, Togo, Burkina Faso, India, Dubai, and Singapore.
This year, the Abuja International Film Festival received an unprecedented 3,158 entries from over 70 countries with the largest number of them coming from India, USA, and Iran and countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Uzbekistan and Jamaica accounting for one entry each.
Duker emphasised that the choice of the theme for this year’s festival has become incumbent on Nigerian filmmakers to begin to discuss the importance and role film can play in the area of national security, which has become a major challenge globally. He also said the theme is double prone in scope as security of any nation cannot be complete without patriotism of the citizens.