Kate Ezeigbo, Founder and Festival Director of RIFF, announced this during a news conference organised to mark the second edition of the festival on Thursday in Port Harcourt.
She said that the submissions came from 172 countries, with Nigeria, India, and the U.S. contributing the highest number of entries.
“The significant number of submissions reflects the potential socio-cultural connections that could be fostered between Rivers, Nigeria, and all the 172 participating countries.’’
Ezeigbo said the event organisers faced challenges in selecting films for the competition, owing to the sheer volume of impressive and competitive entries received.
She said that out of the 2,230 films submitted, only 127 were chosen to compete in the four-day festival.
Ezeigbo highlighted that the selection criteria included films exploring themes such as gender inequality, sexuality, power dynamics, security, racism, and social justice at national and regional levels.
“Other selected stories address marginalised Indigenous and cultural or racial groups, and touch on topics like technology, psychology, medicine, and spirituality and more.’’
The director said the festival would also include initiatives such as Pitch Your Project, Tour Rivers Initiative and Rivers Film Project.
“In addition to the film competition, film practitioners attending the festival will have access to free health services.
“We decided to provide health services due to the frequent deaths of film practitioners in the industry.
“Therefore, at every edition of the festival, film practitioners, enthusiasts and critics will be offered free minor surgeries, eye tests, routine health checks and medication,” she said.
Ezeigbo said that the festival would also offer training in areas such as cinematography, smartphone videography, haircare production, makeup artistry, balloon decoration and cake baking.
According to her, the Pitch Project initiative will allow content creators to interact with film executive producers, while the Rivers Film Project will promote the culture of the Rivers people.
She added that the Tour Rivers Initiative would showcase the sights, sounds and cultural heritage of the state, attracting visitors from across the globe.
