Precious Iroagalachi, Uchenna Ugwu and Blessing Bulus, MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) alumni have emerged winners at the 15th edition of the Mobile Film Festival held in Paris, France.
Their short film titled; Plastic Treasures won them a newly created category known as The Spotlight Award at the festival. Plastic Treasures is a one-minute short film created to bring awareness and showcase a sustainable solution to plastic pollution in Nigeria.
The documentary film highlights how Clean-up Africa Initiative- a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) partners with some schools in under privileged communities in Lagos State. The NGO accepts a certain number of plastic bottles from parents for school fees per school term, which they in turn transfer to companies that buy and recycle the products.
Having received entries from 5 continents, 50 selected films from 24 countries, covering 10 main themes such as waste, recycling, global warming, water scarcity, deforestation, youth activism, climate anticipation, small gestures, overpopulation and transportation, the organisers of the award gave recognitions to Plastic Treasures because the documentary supports an eco-friendly environment.
Speaking about the award, Femi Odugbemi, MTF Director, West Africa said that he had no doubt that the pioneer graduates from the MTF Academy, would go on and do remarkable feats, adding value to the film and television industry in Nigeria and across the continent. “This is the essence of the MTF Academy, which is to give upcoming talent the chance to hone their abilities, thereby increasing the pool of available talent and world class professionals in the industry and we are delighted that we are seeing results” says Odugbemi.
The Mobile Film Festival is an annual competition that centres on how people use film to challenge, question and raise awareness on the urgency to act now, in the face of climate change.
It would be recalled that the MTF, MultiChoice’s flagship Creating Shared Value programme, is a significant investment that testifies to their commitment to helping Africa’s creative industries to grow into vibrant, economic powerhouses.
Currently, thirteen countries are beneficiaries of the MultiChoice Talent Factory programme in Africa and these include; Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Angola, Mozambique and Ethiopia.
