The Niger Delta oil exploratory thriller, ‘Oloibiri’ and the 53-minute documentary, ‘Nowhere to Run’ have emerged winners of the 2016 Homevida awards for best Feature Film and Documentary, respectively.
At the 7th awards presentation ceremony in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer of HomeVida, Seember Nyager said both movies, succeeded in capturing the theme of this year’s awards which focused on transparency, accountability and good governance.
‘Oloibiri’ which was produced by Rogers Ofime, was shortlisted for the Feature Film prize alongside Uru Eke’s debut production ‘Remember Me.’ ‘Nowhere to Run’ was shortlisted alongside Kayode Ogundamisi’s ‘Coping with Boko Haram.’ Both prizes were endowed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The 2016 HomeVida Short films ‘In Apathy’ endowed by USAID SACE and ‘Beautiful Mistake’ supported by Google was also premiered at the event. Three short script writers: Oladipo Awelenje (‘ In Apathy’) for the transparency, accountability and good governance endowed by USAID SACE; Jennifer Agunloye (‘Beautiful Mistake’) and Ajayi Olusegun (‘Due Negligence’) for the ‘Promoting the Digital Economy’ category supported by Google, were rewarded at the event.
Earlier, Jennifer Onyejekwe of Strengthening Advocacy and Civic Engagement of USAID said as a $20 million governance project in Nigeria, the agency seeks to empower advocacy of civil societies in Nigeria especially in the areas of health, education and demand for open budget, persons with disabilities and marginalized groups like women and youth, as well as Agriculture.
“We felt that the usage of film to pass across the message of good governance and transparency and accountability will be quite effective in mobilizing groundswell of support we seek from the populace. Our decision to focus the theme of this year award on transparency and good governance is because we feel it is broad enough to accommodate films and documentaries that can fit into our strategic plan especially in the area of education,” Onyejekwe said.
