Already, the city is bubbling with life with many of the nominees arriving in droves ahead of tomorrow’s event.
Some of them, HVP gathered, will be participating in a mini tourney at the 18-hole golf course with Governor Olusegun Mimiko at the idyllic and mountainous Idanre town on Saturday. Winner of the golf tourney among the celebrities will walk home with a cash prize, courtesy the governor.
It is the seventh edition of the indigenous awards ceremony which, since inception, has been putting a golden seal of excellence on the works of those toiling and sweating to produce and star in feel-good and educative movies.
This year’s edition is especially symbolic because unlike previous editions where only veterans were honoured with the coveted special recognition awards, former president Goodluck Jonathan and former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, will join Chiwetalu Agu, Tade Ogidan and Patience Ozokwor. Speaking on the choice of the Special Recognition Awardees, the executive producer, Seun Oloketuyi said,
“There is no gainsaying the fact that no other Nigerian president helped Nollywood grow as much as former President Goodluck Jonathan. We are all living witnesses to how he established a N2 billion fund aimed at improving the distribution of audio-visual content, reducing piracy, protecting intellectual property in the entertainment industry and boosting film production and distribution within and outside Nigeria.”
He described Akpabio, now the Senate Minority Leader, as a Nollywood aficionado with more than just a passing interest in the arts. Oloketuyi said the choice of the three veterans was arrived at after due consideration of their contributions to Nollywood over the years.
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