Film festivals suffer for want of sponsorship –Amata

Unknown to many movie fans, there is a change in the leadership of the Abuja International Film Festival, often described as one of the best organised and the only truly indigenous event of its kind in Nigeria.

The board and management of the festival recently announced a replacement for the outgoing Director, Fidelis Duker. And the new man at the helms of the affairs of the fiesta is seasoned actor and film director, Fred Amata.

Ahead of the 11th edition of the festival, scheduled to hold in the Federal Capital Territory in September – with the theme ‘100 years of Films in Nigeria, a Retrospective’ – Amata takes over from Duker as acting Festival Director.

He will be receiving the baton of leadership from Duker, who founded the festival and whose new role will henceforth be in advisory capacity.

In the last 11 years, Duker’s leadership of the Abuja International Film Festival had nurtured and helped to raise its profile. During his tenure, the festival held consistently in spite of obvious limiting challenges, especially inadequate funding.

He said, “Compared to other parts of the world where there is a proliferation of film festivals, film lovers in Nigeria have witnessed only a few. But this is not to say that there have not been attempts to introduce film festivals in the country in the past. The problem is that they tend to have a short life span here. Indeed, several film festivals sprang up in the past. But they no longer exist or have been unable to live up to expectation and the standard of their original vision.”

Amata said the reason why film festivals were not common in Nigeria, despite Nollywood’s profile as the third largest in the world, was lack of funding, which needed to be addressed urgently through financial support from the Federal Government or sponsorship by corporate organisations in the country.

He said, “All over the world, film festivals are very capital intensive. So you need money to keep them going. Unfortunately for now, the high cost of organising an international event of this kind and lack of sponsorship may continue to stifle the dreams of stakeholders who are interested in setting up worthy film festivals in the future.”

But he seems happy that the event had in its 11 years of existence been able to raise awareness for the prospects of film festivals in a cinematic environment.

“Considering the fact that Nollywood is still evolving, we believe that sooner or later, when the right structures are put in place, more film festivals will spring up in Nigeria,” he said.

A 1986 graduate of the Theatre Arts Department of the University of Jos, Amata has directed ‘Ripples’ – known as the longest running TV soap ever to be created in the country – in the 1980s.

He made his debut outing as an actor in the award-winning TV drama series, Legacy, in 1986. In a career spanning almost three decades, Fred has earned directorial, Acting and performance credits in over 150 productions spanning almost the entire genre of film, theatre, and cinema.

Easily one of the most recognised screen figures in Africa, Amata is a scion of the renowned Amata Film Dynasty that has produced some of the most recognized and celebrated names in African Film.