Benin City came alive on a humid November evening in 2023, as Nollywood celebrities were driven to their various hotels where staff and management were positioned for quick selfies with them. While the city was already lit up with presence of Nollywood greats, women were seen in various parts of the city setting up stands popularly known as mama put, the barbecue fish and chicken sellers were not left out of this preparation for the biggest event in Nigeria as that was the date given to Edo State to host Edo State International Film Festival (ESIFF).
The organizers, who already intimated the fast food owners and other business partners about the event, also ensured there were enough publicity as well as the readiness of the Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub to accommodate guests from with and outside Nigeria. It was a beauty to behold as Edolites were looking forward to an eventful outing.
The following day, the kicking of the film festival witness the opening ceremony and opening the door to screening of films. Film owners, film/content buyers, thronged into the dimly lit cinema halls filled with film lovers, students and government officials for the maiden Edo State International Film Festival. The screening room buzzed like a beehive: deals were quietly being discussed, young filmmakers nervously rehearsed pitches, and a small army of technicians hustled between panels and workshops. It was a beauty to behold.
The question that many within or outside the government circle may ask is: what is the relevance or economic value of film festival to a state or nation? If this question is viewed from an economic or cultural standpoint, one would realize that film festivals are not just cultural highlights or avenues for paparazzi, they are engines for systematic creative-economy growth. Italy, France, Germany and the United States of America are countries among others who knew this and dug into exploring film festivals to their nations benefits. Canada is today doing quiet well with Cannes
Across Nigeria, it is believed that the creative industries already contribute billions to its GDP; in Edo State the push is explicit. The state previously started to invest in film festival and had its maiden edition in 2022, opened Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub and launched business-enabling reforms which were aimed at attracting investment into film, arts, culture and tourism — moves that align festivals with an industrial strategy, not just a cultural calendar. That public backing within Edo State at that moment turned Benin City, Fugar, Ososos into a magnet for film productions, movie screenings, film workshops and co-productions conversations that would once have happened only in Lagos.
Film festivals are far beyond the spotlight and spectacle of red carpets and paparazzi. It is the bridge that connects talents, capital, ideas and the diverse heterogeneous audiences together for economic and cultural benefits. It is where the creatives learn to monetize culture and content. These played out in the Edo State International Film Festival as gains were transformed structurally into a sustainable creative industry. Upskilling, by cast and crew are achieved through detailed compressed film curriculum called “master classes” with positive ripple effects in world class film productions.
Film Festivals are processed for recognizing productive efforts via awards as well as encouraging the advancement of production value-chain. This is noticeable in a film production where a crew may have a least between 50 to 100 persons employed for it. Same with the cast depending on the type of story to be filmed. Let us not forget the gains from the presence of celebrities and other guests from different states and countries. Their presence will rub, economically, on the carpenters, painters, security, transport, food vendors, bars, clubs, printing, hotel and tourism as well as marketing. Not leaving out the print and broadcast media in terms of contents. Film festivals encourages economic and social growth. The Edo State International Film Festival was already attracting attention beyond local circuits, opening pipelines for funding, cultural and film exchange programs and film export just within two years of its existence. Some other state’s government were already sponsoring teams to Edo State to study how the state suddenly became the fastest growing film/creativity hub in Nigeria.
Film industries in developed countries didn’t just happened, intentionally and deliberately efforts were injected into the process to make filmmaking an industry unlike Nigeria. Government of these developed and fast developing countries, has National and state level policies that rubbed on entertainment legislation, film infrastructural investments, tax incentives, trainings and grants, export and cultural diplomacy where foreign revenues would be gotten from well articulated monetization structures.
Festivals are a practical, testable lever for economic development. They convene people, surface projects, and create temporary demand that — with the right policy scaffolding — becomes permanent industry. Edo State has internationally and deliberately begun to place its film road map like round pegs in round holes. This was already noticeable in a visible festival calendar, a creative structural edifice like the Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub, an already furnished Edonimose apartments for accommodation for filmmakers, a two-storey building for film editing, rebranded tourist sites for filmmaking, easy access to government facilities including the usage of Airport, police stations, uniforms and guns, and state-level reforms that invite film business men into the sector.
I strongly feel that the present government need to deliberately knit these pieces together into a long-term strategy that would make the film industry in Edo State meet global standards, link festivals to continuous training, supply chains and distribution, that would in turn make Edo State an exporter of culture, talent, tourism, hospitality in monetized structure which would therein build an economy that would become the cynosure of all eyes.
