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Saturday, June 16, 2012

We need more credible awads -- Dr. Victor Olatoye


AS the President/CEO of Nollywood Critics, what are the wrongs you really want to correct in the Nigerian film industry?
What Nollywood Critics and NAFCA want to correct is how the African films are seen by people, generally. We want African films to be the best that they can possibly be. We have made a lot of progress in the industry, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

Therefore, I want us to use everything we have so that we can be one of the best, not just in quantity but in quality. This, therefore, explains the passion for what we do with our movie review company and the NAFCA awards.

We know there are lots of awards and we are not trying to knock them down, but we need more credible awards. That is why we took out time to design the trophy in order for people to know the qualify behind it and the process for nomination. So, if we describe a film as the best, it is because we have seen it and we believe it is the best.

To me, what you do in Nollywood Critics is really ambitious; so, how do you source the movies that you critique and what are the processes involved?
Usually, the movies are sent to us by the producers and we also buy them if they are available in the market. Also, the actors or the directors who are involved in the production may send the films to us if they are already out; otherwise, we seek the consent of the producers to send the movies to us for review. So, once we are able to obtain the films, we take them to   our  movie   theatre.   During  this
process, we watch the movies, pay attention to the story lines as well as the quality of the movies and the cmematography, among other things. Then, we assign the star-rating system to the movie, ranging from zero to five. In other word, the higher the star, the better the movie is.

But how can a producer be so confident that his or her movie will not be pirated when it is given to you to critique before its release?
We nave been doing this for four years and we have a 100 percent record.
Nobody can say any movie he or she has given to us has ever been leaked. So, when we finish pre-viewing a movie, it goes to our bank vault where we keep all the movies. They are properly labelled. And if anybody asks for his or her film, we have to ship it back to him or her broken into pieces to make sure there is no funny game between our office and his or hers.

How will you describe the reception of the stakeholders in Nigeria to your efforts so far?
I can tell you that they like it. Some of them are with us and some still want to know more. I don't think there is any stakeholder that thinks what we are doing is not credible. But sometime, if people don't have the right information, they have the right to have some kind of reservation about our intention, who we are and so on.

We have been making this noise for four years and almost everybody knows us. They might not have met us, but they are aware of the existence of the company. We don't expect 100 percent acceptance from the stakeholders, but we have the majority of them on board.

Soon, you will organize the second edition of the NAFCA awards, what are you doing to improve on your outing last year?
It took us about five months to put together the previous awards. Then, we had to do everything in a rush, but we got everything done. So, the whole thing was not without flaws. But there is always room for improvement in whatever one does in life. This year, we want to make sure more people are aware of the awards. Last year, I didn't come to Nigeria.

As a matter of fact, we did all the promotion in the US. So, this year, I am here in Nigeria and that is an improvement. Now, we have come to talk to our people to let them know we are here and what Nollywood Film Critics is all about. More importantly, it is about how we can help them to sell their films and merchandize their products, thereby giving them the opportunities to make more money.

What have been the challenges so far?
We have a serious challenge when it comes to sponsorship because we are new. However, we are making some progress. Last years, we didn't have so many sponsors; but this year, we have a few more. So, we wul continue to improve as people become more aware of what we do and know that it is a credible award and not a get-rich-quick award.

When is it coming up?
The awards date is 16 September, but we will hold the world premiere of a movie on 15 September.

How do you recruit the critics who work with you?
The people that critique the movies must have what is called the third eye. They go through some training based on the standard that we have set. They watch these movies and write the reviews based on their critical thinking. So, that is how we select them. Some of the film critics are professors in some universities and they are spread all over the world; they are critical thinkers when it comes to reviewing movies.

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