Nigerian Film Maker Bags German Film Award

NIGERIA gained another international recognition recently when Ehiz Ojesebholo, a student of the International Film and Broadcast Academy, IFBA, Lagos, last month, in Potsdam, Germany, emerged the winner of this year’s Focus-Dilaogue-Prize at the Sehsuchte International Students Film Festival. Since inception of the competition, Ehiz Ojesebholo is the first African film maker to clinch the coveted prize. He is the Chief Executive Officer, Nantoons Studios, Lagos, an outfit that is reputed for creating animations/cartoons for family entertainment by using different techniques that are less expensive. Commenting on his prize, Ojesebholo said, “I give glory to God for winning the award. I am amazed and surprised that my film Chill Out could win the award among many contestants from different parts of the world. I believe that, by the grace of God, I will win more awards and make the African continent proud.” Ojesebholo is also set to release the first Computer Graphic Imagery (C.G.I ) movie in Nollywood entitled Smoke and Mirrors come next month. Smoke and Mirrors, according to him, is a movie that is punctuated with intrigues, suspense, love, romance, adventure, deception and other special effects. The cast comprises seasoned artistes such as Olu Jacobs, Keppy Ekpeyong Bassey, Bimbo Akintola, Femi Brainard, amongst others. Directed by Ehiz Ojesebholo, the movie is produced by four seasoned film makers, including Adonijah Owiriwa, Ibironke Ojesebholo, Abiola Adeniran and Titi Akinmoyo. Ojesebholo noted that the difference between Computer Graphic Imagery and other movies is that the other movies make use of real locations, props and other elements but with C.G.I movie, everything is animated and the artistes would have to use their talents and skills to relate to the environment. “The major challenge that I encountered as a director was having to coordinate the artistes to react to an environment that they cannot see or touch, and it was a Herculean task but we were able to overcome the predicament through relying on the skills and talents of the individual artiste.” Ojesebholo says it took the producers about thirteen months to produce the movie.