Nigeria: Nollywood stars, Stan Nze and Tana Adelana, have clinched the Outstanding Male Actor and the Outstanding Female Actress awards at the 21st edition of the Abuja International Film Festival (AIFF). They were announced winners at the awards ceremony of the festival on Thursday night at the Silverbird Galleria in Abuja.
According to Voice of Nigeria, the 2024 AIFF was held from October 28 to November 1, with the theme ‘Beyond Borders: Bridging Cultures Through Cinemas.’ Stan Nze won the Outstanding Male Actor award for his role in the award-winning short film ’12 Hours,’ while Tana Adelana secured the Outstanding Female Actress award for her performance in the film ‘Tender Hedges.’
Tana Adelana shared the Outstanding Female Actress position with Cameroonian actress Lum Nora Neba for her role in the Oscar-nominated film ‘Kismet.’ Stan Nze led the cast of ’12 Hours’ with his portrayal of Kelvin, a successful Lagos-based photographer living a lie. The 25-minute mystery thriller follows Kelvin as he wakes
up to an inexplicable terror at midnight and is forced to relive the last 12 hours of his life, grappling with the falsity of his perceptions and the dilemma of accepting his fate or fighting back.
’12 Hours,’ a debut directorial film by Tobe Anosike, also won the prestigious Best Short Film Nollywood award at the 2024 Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival (TINFF). Other categories of awards and winners at the AIFF included Best Experimental for ‘Tage IM Winter’ (Germany) and Best Animation Film for ‘The Forest of Honest Bees’ (France).
The Outstanding Music Score award was secured by ‘Kaka,’ a Nigerian film, while ‘Kismet’ (Cameroon) won Best Feature Screenplay. ‘Four Quarters’ (Russia) was awarded Best Feature Film, Foreign, and ‘Kaka’ received Best Feature Film, Indigenous. Other winners included Best Documentary (Feature) for ‘Dela-The Making of EL Anatsui’ (Nigeria), Best Documentary (Short) for ‘Lucy- A Pioneer Destiny’ (Italy), and Outstanding in Film Directing, which was clinched by Evgenya
Tirdatova for ‘Four Quarters.’
‘Four Quarters,’ a film entry from the Russian Federation, clinched the highly coveted Golden Jury Film Award.