Chioma Ude, the founder of the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) has revealed that she would be quitting the festival next year.
Since its inception in 2010, AFRIFF has grown to become one of the biggest film festivals in Africa, providing spotlight for African movies and free training and talent development opportunities for young people and aspiring film-makers, but Chioma said she cannot be a part of it anymore.
In an interview, the entertainment entrepreneur disclosed that she was getting left out of major decisions in the festival and had little to no control of what went on anymore, hence her decision to leave.
She said, ‘What you should look out for in AFRIFF is sad, to me it’s very sad because I’m losing grip of the festival. It’s getting bigger than me and it really showed this year. I had very little say in a lot of things and I would say to them as a joke but I was serious and they didn’t know that. I am going to quit next year because I had no (say in the) decision.
‘I’d call Chioma who was in charge of content and say ‘some filmmakers are calling me, their films are not (in the selection), why didn’t you select these films and she’ll say, oh boss leave it alone, you cannot understand, these are not festival films.’ And that’s it! I’m thrown to the side and they’re doing what they doing. So I have a little grip on something I’m still holding on to very well but the festival has really grown.
‘When a festival gets so big, you end up in clusters unlike before (when) everybody could still be together. But it’s getting bigger for great reasons,’ she added.
This post first appeared on TNS.
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