By Sue-Ann Wayow
SOCA superstar Machel Montano is adding more accolades to his name.
His 2015 film, Bazodee, has raked in six nominations at the Nigerian-based Realtime Film Festival (RTF).
Earlier this month, RTF made the announcement that Bazodee had been recognised in the following six major categories:
-
Best Lead Actor
-
Best Lead Actress
-
Best Supporting Actor
-
Best Supporting Actress
-
Best Screenplay
-
Best Lighting Design
In a recent press release, one of the film’s producers, Lorraine O’Connor, described the multi-nomination news as “heartwarming.”
She said, “The Bazodee nominations are really heartwarming, as this film brings a lot of joy and promotes love which is something most needed in the world today and the Caribbean is all about joy and love. It also shows that the film has a far reach, and this being its African premiere, I am excited that the film was nominated in those categories, and is now being appreciated by another audience and another market.”
O’Connor is also the General Manager of C15 Studios Limited, a company which has invested in Bazodee, and has assiduously been working toward improving the financial prospects for creatives across the Caribbean region.
O’Connor and the C15 team are now exploring potential opportunities for creative partnerships between Nigeria and the Caribbean and will be travelling to Nigeria for the RTF 2022.
She will be on the lookout for opportunities in which strategic partnerships can be forged, and knowledge shared.
“We are very excited about the possibilities that can be generated from our participation in the Realtime Film Festival, opening the door to collaborations/co-productions between Nollywood and the Caribbean,” O’Connor said.
Echoing O’Connor’s views on the vast benefits of forging a cinematic bridge between the Caribbean and Nigeria, is Sean Valley, one of the founders of Lanniup Consulting. Valley has been instrumental in connecting the Trinidad and Tobago contingent with Nollywood.
O’Connor added, “As General Manager of C15 Studios, my mission is to take Caribbean creative talent to the world by helping to develop a profitable Caribbean economy. This type of collaboration is exactly in line with my mission of building meaningful economic bridges between the Caribbean and Africa, which can only lead to success.”
She will be discussing more on her monthly online programme – The C15 Show with Lorraine O’Connor.
Creatives across the Caribbean are encouraged to register for The C15 Show – Episode 8 as O’Connor’s guests will be Founder of The Realtime Film Festival, Stanlee Ohikhuare, who will shed his insights on Nollywood’s rise to global success and Freetown Collective’s Muhammad Muwakil and Lou Lyons, who would speak on strategically planning one’s creative regional and global climb, without ever losing sight of one’s history and culture.
The C15 Show with Lorraine O’Connor will be streamed Live from Nigeria, online (Zoom and Facebook), on Thursday, 6 pm (TT time).
Bazodee will be screened at the RTF on Friday. The results will be announced on Saturday at the closing ceremony of the festival.
The Realtime Film Festival 2022 will run from August 19 – 27 in Lagos, Nigeria.
General Manager of FilmTT, Leslie-Ann Wills-Caton, and Head of Programming of Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT), Diane Robertson, will accompany O’Connor and Valley at the RTF Festival.
