Category: Art, Media & Entertainment

Jowhor Ile, has emerged winner of the 2016 Etisalat Literature Prize for his book: And after Many Days, published in Nigeria by Kachifo Limited, which depicts originality of voice, literary excellence and African sensibility.

Jowhor Ile becomes the first Nigerian to win the award as past winners of the Prize: Fiston Mwanza Mujila from The Democratic Republic of Congo (Tram 83; 2015); South African novelist Songeziwe Mahlangu (Penumbra, 2014) and Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo (We Need New Names, 2013).

As winner, Jowhor Ile receives £15,000, an engraved Montblanc Meisterstück pen, an Etisalat sponsored book tour to three African countries.

He will also have an Etisalat-sponsored fellowship at the University of East Anglia, mentored by Professor Giles Foden, author of “The Last King of Scotland”.

The runners-up include; Jacqui L’Ange’s (South Africa) “The Seed Thief” and another Nigerian Juliet Iromuanya’s “Mr and Mrs Doctor”.

The other runners-up will also enjoy a sponsored multi-city book tour while Etisalat will also purchase 1,000 copies of their books for distribution to schools, libraries and book clubs across Africa with the objective of promoting the reading culture and the publishing industry at large.

SO&U, an M&C Saatchi Partner creative agency has won the 2017 Emerald award of the African Cristal Festival for its Globacom Telecommunications ‘Grandpa Goes to London’ campaign in the Main – Continental – Awards category.

SO&U under the leadership of its celebrated Creative Director, Anthony Ekun was also shortlisted this year, 2017 for its innovative Glo Hamma campaign dubbed ‘Jenifa’.

Continue reading SO&U Wins 2017 African Cristal Festival Emerald Award

Nigerian-born British Actress, Wunmi Mosaku wins the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA Award) for the best supporting actress for her role in 2016’s BBC drama Damilola, Our Loved Boy, in which she played Gloria Taylor, the mother of the murdered schoolboy.

PR and Communication Company, Red Media Africa, has been announced winner of the Gold SABRE Awards for Public Relations Campaigns [2017].

The company led the West Africa category for its work on Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg’s inaugural visit to Nigeria in 2016, while StateCraft Inc., its governance consulting affiliate was recognized with a Certificate of Excellence for leading the communication campaign of Nana Akufo-Addo in Ghana’s 2016 presidential elections.

With this award, Red Media Africa emerged the only Nigerian PR & Communication company among the shortlist of winners at the globally recognised awards.

The University of Michigan has named Dayo Aiyetan, Executive Director, International Center for Investigative Reporting, Abuja, Nigeria as one of its Fellow for its Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship Programme for the 2017-2018 academic year. The group, which includes 12 Americans and seven international journalists, is the 44th class of journalism fellows at the University.

Dayo Aiyetan’s study project is Advancing best practices for whistle blowing platforms to support investigative reporting in Nigeria.

Knight-Wallace Fellows spend an academic year at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to pursue individual study plans and to engage in collaborative learning through fellowship seminars, training workshops and travel. Through twice-weekly seminars, Fellows engage with visiting journalists, eminent scholars and creative thinkers from a range of fields. Weeklong international news tours provide broader context to political, economic and social forces shaping their fields of study, and to trends and challenges facing journalism in other countries.

The program is based at Wallace House, a gift from the late newsman Mike Wallace and his wife, Mary. Knight-Wallace Fellows receive a stipend of $70,000 for the eight-month academic year plus full tuition and health insurance. The programme is entirely funded through endowment gifts by foundations, news organizations and individuals committed to improving the quality of information reaching the public.

 

Faraday Okoro, a 30-year-old Nigerian-American filmmaker, has been awarded a $1 million grant for his film Nigerian Prince from AT&T in its first program to help emerging filmmakers.

Written and directed by Okoro, the movie will be produced by Biyi Bandele and Oscar Hernandez-Topete with a focus on underrepresented perspectives.

Nigeria Prince will premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.

A New York City based Nigerian-American filmmaker, Faraday Okoro graduated with Distinction from Howard University and has MFA in filmmaking from NYU Film School.

But the money came with pressure: For example, it was to be filmed in Africa.

Tomi Adeyemi, has landed a seven figure book-and-movie deal for her first novel, Children of Blood and Bone, which is described as a “Black Lives Matter-inspired fantasy novel.”

The film rights were purchased by Fox 2000 before the novel was released.

Tomi Adeyemi is a 23 years old Nigerian-American writer and creative writing coach based in San Diego, who graduated from Harvard with a major in English Literature before receiving a fellowship to study West African mythology and culture in Salvador, Brazil.

Her debut West African YA Fantasy novel is CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE (Holt Books for Young Readers/Macmillan). The CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE movie is in development at Fox 2000/Temple Hill Productions with Karen Rosenfelt and Marty Bowen (Twilight, Maze Runner, The Fault In Our Stars) producing it.