The anthology film, ‘Juju Stories’, directed by Nigerian Film Directors, has won the international Boccalino d’oro award for the Best Film at the 74th Locarno Film Festival.
The three directors are CJ ‘Fiery’ Obasi, Michael Omonua, and Abba Makama.
The Locarno film festival, founded in 1949, is an annual event held every August in Locarno, Switzerland.
It is one of the longest-running film festivals, also known for being a platform for art house films.
The festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narratives and documentaries and short, avant-garde, and retrospective programmes.
Mr Obasi, co-director, took to his Instagram page @fierycj, where he excitedly confirmed the great achievement.
“We are grateful to Ugo Brusaporco, Arminio Sciolli of the Boccalino d’oro awards,” he stated. “We are super grateful to the entire cast and crew, to the festival director, Giona Nazzaro, the selection committee, and the great team of Locarno film festival.”
‘Juju Stories’, a three-part anthology film exploring juju (magical) stories rooted in Nigerian folklore and urban legend, premiered in July at the festival.
The movie, shot by Femi Awojide, Surreal16 Collective’s production, includes three stories: ‘Suffer the Witch’, ‘Yam’, ‘Love Portion’ all written and directed by the three Nigerian directors.
‘Juju Stories’ was produced by Francis Nebot, Oge Obasi, and Adaugo Uzoma.
The movie featured Timini Egbuson, Belinda Agedah Yang, Adebukola Oladipupo, Paul Utomi, Elvis Poko, Nengi Adoki and Seun Kentebe among others.
