Best of Nollywood 2017… Ogun deputy governor, celebrities read for school children

Committee Unveils Nominees

In line with the tradition of the award project, Best Of Nollywood (BON), on Monday, held its yearly Celebrity Reading at the Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta, Ogun State capital. Bon Celebrity Reading is part of the preludes to the prestigious BON Awards 2017, scheduled for December 16, in Abeokuta later in the year.

This year, No, don’t touch me there, a book on sex education by Pastor Nomith Odukoya, was read with the children by the Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Chief Mrs. Yetunde Onanuga, alongside some Nollywood stars including Doris Simeon, Femi Branch, Aishat Lawal, Yomi Fabiyi and others.

Speaking on the event, the executive producer, BON Awards, Seun Oloketuyi described the mentoring session as, “a corporate social responsibility of the awards, as it offers a platform for children to aspire to be great people in life. It features inspirational talks, photo ops and an autograph-signing session.”

On the choice of celebrities for the reading, Oloketuyi explained, “The chosen celebrities are past winners and nominees of the BON awards. What we usually promise the lucky students is a life-changing opportunity to meet with their role models and favourite celebrities and hear directly from them time-tested success nuggets that they need to be better individuals,” he said.

Done with the reading, the formal unveiling of nominees for this year’s award followed the next day, with Dayo Adeneye (D1), Commissioner for Information and Strategy, representing the host state governor, Sen Ibikunle Amosun.

In his remarks, Adeneye, co-founder of Kennis Music, “The current administration in Ogun State is proud to be identified with this event and we promise to give all the needed support to ensure that this year’s edition is an even greater success story.”

While congratulating the nominees, Adeneye enjoined all guests coming for the awards holding in December to endeavour to visit the many tourist sites in the state, as well as assess the level of development so far.

Presenting the nominees list, Niran Adedokun, head, Screeners’ Committee informed that the committee had over 128 films this year, of which 120 including 113 feature films, seven short films and two Tv series, were screened. According to him, eight others were disqualified for various reasons relating to not meeting entry requirement.

“This marks the end of four months of intense activities which started with our call for entries. On the whole, we can say that practitioners are doing all possible to raise the bar of production even though a lot of entries still leave much to be desired. One sure thing however is that Nigerian filmmakers are doing their best to attain international standards and they need to be encouraged,” Adedokun said.

He assured that part of the objective of BON platform is to help promote indigenous films, adding, “BON prides itself as a promoter of the beauty that exists in our diversity, we see films as a veritable way of preserving our culture and appeal to our filmmakers to produce more films in local languages and bring forward for the awards.”

Nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role (English) Sambasa Nzeribe in Slow Country, Alexx Ekubo in Inikpi, Joseph Benjamin in Dance to my Beat, Bolanle Ninalowo in Picture Perfect, Gabriel Afolayan in Tatu and Paul Utomi in What lies Within. Meanwhile, IK Ogbonna – Excess Luggage, Kelechi Udegbe – Behind the Wheels, Tope Tedela – Slow Country, Segun Arinze/Sambasa Nzeribe – Tatu and Justice Nuagbe (Ushbebe) – Dance to my Beat will slug it out for the Best Actor in a Supporting Role (English).

Best Actress in Leading Role (English) has Omotola Jalade Ekeinde in Alter Ego, Ivie Okujaye in Slow Country, Ufuoma McDermott in The Women, Michelle Dede in What lies Within, Rahama Sadau in Tatu and Esther Audu in Inikpi. While for Best Actress in Supporting role (English), Queen Nwokoye – Excess Luggage, Bayray Mcnwizu – Trace, Bisola Aiyeola – Picture Perfect, Toyin Abraham/Funlola Raimi – Tatu and Kate Henshaw/Omoni Oboli/ Katherine Obiang- The Women. Other categories of the awards are listed on BON website.