HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOLLYWOOD DIVA KIKI

KIKI OMEILI

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO FIDELIS DUKER

FIDELIS DUKER

HBD to a friend, a partner, a passionate film maker, a creative thinker and an extraordinary entrepreneur and businessman of our generation, Mr. Fidelis Duker, Festival Director and founder Abuja International Film Festival, Former President, Directors Guild of Nigeria and Chairman Africa Festivals Network. As you mark another anniversary of your birth today, I wish you all the beautiful things of life and pray that God gives you long life and prosperity. Keep on shining and making a difference in the film industry globally.

By Emmanuel Etim

Turkish Film 'Winter Sleep' Wins Palme d'Or CANNES

CANNES — “Winter Sleep,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s sprawling, character-rich portrait of a self-absorbed Anatolian hotelier and his uneasy relationships with those around him, won the Palme d’Or at the 67th annual Cannes Film Festival on Saturday night. It’s only the second film by a Turkish director to win the festival’s highest honor, after Yilmaz Guney and Serif Goren’s “The Way” (1982).

            

WINTER SLEEP OFFICIAL THRILLER

Although it divided critics and audiences with its reams of dialogue and challenging 196-minute running time, “Winter Sleep” became a critics’ favorite and Palme contender early on in the festival. Considerably more surprising was the jury’s decision to award the Grand Prix to “The Wonders,” Italian director Alice Rohrwacher’s semi-autobiographical drama about a family of beekeepers struggling to preserve their way of life in central Italy.

Bennett Miller received the best director award for “Foxcatcher,” his drama about the complex psychological triangle involving Olympic wrestlers Mark and Dave Schultz and the Pennsylvania millionaire John du Pont.

WINTER SLEEP PRESS CONFERENCE

“This is quite affirming, and I’m very grateful,” Miller said.

The actress prize went to Julianne Moore for her ferocious turn as a washed-up thesp in David Cronenberg’s Tinseltown satire “Maps to the Stars.” Moore was not present to accept at the ceremony.

Timothy Spall won the actor prize for his performance as the painter J.M.W. in Leigh’s “Mr. Turner.”

“I’ve spent a lot of time being a bridesmaid. This is the first time I’ve ever been a bride, so I’m quite pleased about that,” Spall said in a long, moving acceptance speech. Noting that “this is as much an accolade for Mr. Leigh as it is for me,” Spall reminisced about the time when Leigh’s “Secrets & Lies,” in which he also starred, won the Palme d’Or, at which time he was undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia. “I thank God that I’m still here and alive.”

The jury prize was awarded to two films from the competition’s youngest and oldest helmers, respectively: Xavier Dolan’s “Mommy” and Jean-Luc Godard’s “Goodbye to Language.” While Godard did not attend the festival, Dolan paid tribute to jury president Jane Campion in an emotional speech, citing her Palme d’Or-winning “The Piano” as one of the first and most influential films he watched as a teenager.

The Camera d’Or for best first film was given to “Party Girl,” a three-way directing debut for French helmers Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger and Samuel Theis. The film, which opened the Un Certain Regard sidebar, had already received an ensemble acting prize the night before.

COMPETITION PRIZES

Palme d’Or: “Winter Sleep” (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey-Germany-France)

Grand Prix: “The Wonders” (Alice Rohrwacher)

Director: Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher”

Actor: Timothy Spall, “Mr. Turner”

Actress: Julianne Moore, “Maps to the Stars”

Jury Prize: “Mommy” (Xavier Dolan) and “Goodbye to Language” (Jean-Luc Godard)

Screenplay: Andrey Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin, “Leviathan”

OTHER PRIZES

Camera d’Or: “Party Girl” (Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, Samuel Theis)

Short Films Palme d’Or: “Leidi” (Simon Mesa Soto)

Short Films Special Mention: “Aissa” (Clement Trehin-Lalanne)

Ecumenical Jury Prize: “Timbuktu” (Abderrahmane Sissako, Mauritania-France)

UN CERTAIN REGARD PRIZES

Un Certain Regard Prize: “White God” (Kornel Mundruczo, Hungary-Germany-Sweden)

Jury prize: “Force Majeure” (Ruben Ostlund, Sweden-France-Denmark-Norway)

Special Prize: “The Salt of the Earth” (Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, France-Italy)

Ensemble: “Party Girl” (Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, Samuel Theis, France)

Actor: David Gulpilil, “Charlie’s Country” (Rolf de Heer, Australia)

DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT PRIZES

Art Cinema Award: “Les Combattants” (Thomas Cailley, France)

Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: “Les Combattants”

Europa Cinemas Label: “Les Combattants”

CRITICS’ WEEK PRIZES

Grand Prize: “The Tribe” (Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, Ukraine)

Visionary Prize: “The Tribe”

Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: “Hope” (Boris Lojkine, France)

FIPRESCI PRIZES

Competition: “Winter Sleep”

Un Certain Regard: “Jauja” (Lisandro Alonso, Denmark-U.S.-Argentina)

Directors’ Fortnight: “Les Combattants”

LIVE STREAMING CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2014

VOTE ANGELA FOR FAVORITE ACTRESS AWARD African Oscars

http://www.africannafca.com/peopleschoice.aspx Please My Beautiful People, Vote For Your Girl Angela Okorie https://www.facebook.com/angela.okorie.58 As Your Favorite Actress. Thanks And God Bless!!!

Watch What Happens When the 'Most Powerful Man on Earth' Takes a Walk

        

President Obama

Some of Washington DC's residents were in for a surprise when the President decided to take a walk... And strolling along with a suit jacket slung over his shoulder, it seemed as if Obama had made quite an impression.

President Obama was heading over to the nearby Department of the Interior from the White House and decided to break with tradition. On the way, he got a chance to meet with all sorts of folks, who weren't expecting to meet the President of the United States of America.

Obama chatted with tourists, shopkeepers and children during his walk to and from the Interior Department.

As one woman out shook his hand, she asked, "Are you real?". The President said he was.  Another asked him if it was okay to get a picture and as Obama agreed, she said, "Omigosh! Someone's gonna think you're wax."

"The bear is loose!" he told trailing scribes at one point, the local press reported.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/offbeat/watch-what-happens-when-the-most-powerful-man-on-earth-takes-a-walk-529139

CELEBRITY HANGOUT: ANNA MBGN & DANIELLA LITTLE MISS UNIVERSE

 DANIELLA (Little Miss Universe) AND ANNA (MBGN 2013/2014)

Daniella Okoye, Little Princess Universe hangs-out with her role model Miss Anna Banner MBGN 2013/14:

It was a day that the Little Princess Daniella will never forget in the pursuit of her career as she aims towards winning MBGN 2020/21: visiting Miss Anna at her Lekki residence was a total change of mindset for her, according to Daniella, "I like Miss Anna, her beauty, niceness, friendliness and she's so real"

According to miss Anna "Daniella is my daughter, I'll take her to Bayelsa for my MBGN hand-over next month"

Miss Anna indeed showered her with lots of love by taking her for shopping and a special treat.

The visit was accompanied by her mother her Mrs. Ndidi Okoye and her Manager Mr. Ebuka Peters Ekwuelechi aka Ambassador, the CEO Lagos Comedy News.

FUNKE AKINDELE: PROMOTING VALUES THROUGH FILM

The Nollywood Studies Centre

FUNKE AKINDELE (Nollywood Star Actress)

The desire to promote good values as well as the need to give back to the society and make a difference are the driving forces for Ms. Funke Akindele. Speaking at the April 2014 edition of the Filmmakers' Forum of the Nollywood Studies Centre, Ms. Akindele stated, "Before I take up any role, I think about the message I'll be passing." She went on to add that her choices of roles as an actress were guided by the framework of the Nigerian culture and its value system.  She emphasised the importance of promoting good values, especially with respect to the protection of children. This, in addition to the protection of her personal brand, has sometimes led her to request that certain aspects of a screenplay be toned down in order for her to accept the offered role.

Earlier, at the start of the Forum, Ms. Akindele narrated how she began her acting career. She had always wanted to act, she said, and she had the full support of her mother. After obtaining an Ordinary National Diploma (OND) in Mass Communication from the Ogun State Polytechnic, in 1995, she decided to study Theatre Arts. However, her father insisted on her studying Law, and she got a place in the University of Lagos to do just that. But this did not stop her from attending auditions and seeking an entry point into the film industry.

Her first role came in 1997 in Opa Williams' Naked Wire, and she also got minor roles in a couple of other movies. Her big break, however, came with the television series, I Need to Know, which was directed by Lloyd Weaver and produced by his outfit, Swift Studios. It was a big break in more than one sense because she seized the opportunity to learn the ropes of production. But this still did not open the doors of the English filmmaking sector to her. She had better luck with Yoruba films, which she turned to on the advice of others. Ms. Akindele seized the opportunity to emphasise the importance of determination and self-confidence for the thespian. It will always be a tough struggle, she said, and encouraged budding actors to always hold on to their dreams.

In 2004, she decided to bring into play all that she had learnt about production on the set of I Need to Know, and she made her first film, Ojoketala (The Thirteenth Day). Her delving into production, according to Ms. Akindele, was facilitated by her curiosity and interest in learning about the different aspects of filmmaking. "When I make films, I oversee every aspect closely such that a cinematographer once asked me with irritation whether I am a camerawoman."  Ojoketala was followed by other films such as Itanu and Taiwo Taiwo. But the film that has made her well known, and which provided one of her major roles, was Jenifa.

The decision to make Jenifa arose from the desire to make an impact by passing a message on moral norms aimed at parents and their daughters. In this case, she was concerned about prostitution on the university campus. However, the realisation that similar stories had already been told in other films underlined the need to tell the story differently so as to make the message register, hence the use of humour.

"Producing Jenifa was difficult," Ms Akindele noted, due largely to the challenges faced in raising the funds. She had not intended to play the lead role but, after three days of fruitless auditioning, she was forced to take it on. She created the character around the idea of a "wannabe village girl" and imbued her with different mannerisms that she had observed in different persons. "I carried out a lot of research for the character and travelled as far as Oshogbo, Ilorin and Ibadan to get the dialect right." Her efforts paid off, and the film was very successful. Following another success with the sequel, Jenifa Returns, she now plans to produce a television series based on the same character.

Speaking passionately about the need to give back to society, Ms. Akindele said that the Jenifa Foundation had been set up to achieve this end. The Foundation aims to help people nurture their talent by training them. As such, workshops and other activities are organised on that platform. The areas of training include fashion design, make up, hairdressing, bead making and drama. The Scene One School of Drama has also been set up to contribute towards the needed manpower development in the film industry.

The Forum ended with a question and answer session during which Ms. Akindele slipped into the Jenifa character in various moments to the pleasure of the audience.

SOUTH AFRICA SIGNS FILM TREATY WITH BRAZIL AT 2014 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

     

                                

South African film to premiere at Cannes.

THE curtain raised on the 67th International Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, as thousands of filmmakers, movie-goers and journalists, together with a handful of A-list stars, head to the French Riviera.

As has become tradition for over 10 years, South Africa’s National Film and Video Foundation will host the country’s pavilion at the International Pavilion, where countries from around the world showcase their film industries.

Following last year’s co-production treaty signing with Kenya, South Africa will enter into an agreement with Brazil to help make feature film collaborations between the two easier.

Although there hasn’t been a South African film in competition as part of the official selection since 2011 — when Mads Mikkelsen screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival — a movie jointly made by a South African production company together with a Danish one, will have a gala screening. The Salvation, which was shot entirely near Johannesburg in 2013, will premiere on Saturday night.

The film, billed as a classic Western set in 1870s America, is directed by renowned Danish filmmaker Kristian Levring, and stars Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt, Hannibal) in the lead role, together with Eva Green and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the supporting cast.

Cape Town-based Spier Films worked with Danish production company Zentropa to set up this Danish-South African-UK co-production.

"We are very proud of this film and all the work and craftsmanship that was put in by South African crews," says Spier Films producer Michael Auret. "This film is a testament to the high quality work that South African crews can achieve in all departments. It was a great privilege to work on a Western which was a childhood dream of many of us and we certainly learnt a lot from Kristian Levring’s approach to making the film."

The shoot involved four months of construction and preparation followed by a two-month shoot.

Other highlights for the country’s offering over the next 10 days include the much-lauded gangster film iNumber Number, directed by Donovan Marsh. The film debuted at the Toronto Film Festival last year and has been scooped up to be remade into a Hollywood movie with an American cast, and the documentary Nelson Mandela: The Myth and Me.

This year’s festival jury, which selects the event’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, will be helmed by New Zealand director, writer and producer Jane Campion, who won that coveted prize for The Piano.

See link.http://www.bdlive.co.za/life/entertainment/2014/05/14/south-african-film-to-premiere-at-cannes

African film makes it to Cannes Film Festival 2014.

        

TIMBUKTU

Mauritania/French film in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival 2014.

Abderrahmane Sissako, on how his film came about:

"The trigger was the stoning of a couple, in a small village in Mali. Not only because this happened but also because no-one spoke about it", he stressed, lamenting that the world is becoming "indifferent to horror".

Sylvie Pialat, the film producer, on the subject of the film director’s initial intention to shoot a documentary:

"Timbuktu was still occupied and it was out of question to shoot in Mali for security reasons. When the French Army intervened, we felt an urgent need to tell that particular story. It took us a very long time to find the country in which to shoot the film, Mauritania".

Abderrahmane Sissako, talking about the "element of humanity" in jihadists, with much emotion:

"There is a complex side to each human being, there is good and bad. A jihadist is like us, but his life has dramatically changed. A person who abuses others may have doubts. This is why I think that there is a humane side to him".

Abderrahmane Sissako also admitted feeling "uncomfortable" on film sets, and his "fear of aestheticizing films":

"We are face to face with sixty people but feel alone. We pretend that we control and know everything, but that’s not true.

Interview directed by Benoit Pavan

Synopsis

Timbuktu is silent, the doors closed, the streets empty. No more music, no tea, no cigarettes, no bright colors, no laughs. The women have become shadows. The religious fundamentalists are spreading terror in the region.

In the dunes, away from the chaos, Kidane enjoys a quiet life with his wife Satima, his daughter Toya and Issan, his little shepherd. But his peace is short-lived. After accidentally killing Amadou, a fisherman who stroke down his favorite cow, Kidane must face the law of the new foreign rulers determined to defeat an open and tolerant Islam.

Against the humiliations and acts of brutality performed by these complex men, Timbuktu tells the story of the silent struggle of the people, the fight for life of little Issan, and the uncertain future of the children.