By Bababjide Awoyinfa
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has commended the organisers of the newly premiered movie “The Wedding Party” for raising Nollywood artistic bar to international level.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the movie, which is a romantic comedy and a drama film, premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival version held in Lagos.
The Kemi Adetiba-directed movie had some of Africa’s biggest stars led by Richard Mofe-Damijo,
Sola Sobowale, Alibaba, Iretiola Doyle, Banky W and Adesua Etomi, with the stars attending the premiere.
In his remark, Mohammed said the important thing was to see how the creative industry was moving from the margins to become one of the pillars of the economy.
He added that “people are beginning to take the arts more seriously, a lot of things are happening. You can see the major shift that is beginning to happen.
“You can imagine the amount of investment that will go into this film, you can imagine the number of jobs it will create, that’s a challenge to us in government.
“It shows that this industry is sustainable when we provide the right environment in terms of regulatory framework, in terms of laws, in terms of protecting intellectual property.
“What is clear is that the kind of framework the government today is providing the film industry, tourism, arts and the likes, will definitely play to become a better role in the economy”, the minister added.
On his part, Cameron Bailey, the Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival,
said “we are pleased to welcome The Wedding Party by award-winning filmmaker Kemi Adetiba to the Festival.
“We are proud to present it to a global audience. Adetiba has delivered an exciting character-driven film on a grand scale, while putting her own unique spin on a familiar genre.”
Also, the Executive Producer of Ebony Life TV, Mo Abudu, said the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)’s selection of “The Wedding Party” was a true honour.
She said “I can’t think of a better place, or a better global audience for the film’s festival Premiere than this.”
