It was another milestone for the Nigerian entertainment industry in Miami beach, Florida, United States when Ogo Okpue, a UK based filmmaker from Nigeria was adjudged the ‘Best Director’ in a tie with Bryan Keith Montgomery Jnr at the 2023 American Black Film Festival Award for his film, ‘A song from the dark’.
The American Black Film Festival, currently at its 27th annual edition is the biggest black film festival in the world, created to highlight audio-visual works of black origin.
‘A song from the dark which also won the Best Actor category at the American Black Film Festival had six nominations at the 2022 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in Nigeria, while winning Okpue, the best director for first feature film.
Starring Nollywood’s Nse Ikpe Etim, Wale Ojo alongside Ghanaian born Vanessa Vanderpuye, Octavia Gilmore and Dean Kilby amongst others, the film is a fantasy-horror, positioned to project heroes and heroines of African traditional mysticism.
Okpue, whose short films like ‘Saving Cain’, ‘Cat Face’ have been recognised and screened at major film festivals around the world, says the feat at American Black Film Festival is humbling for him, having put three years of work in the film.
He said, “Winning at the largest black film festival in the world for our film was an absolute honour! Three years grafting in the dark, and then within a year, you end up in Miami Beach accepting two big prestigious awards as well as ‘Best Director’ at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles? God did! Congrats to my lead actress for winning Best Actor as well. Congrats to all my fellow 2023 ABFF winners! I will say many thanks to Jeff and Nicole Friday, for birthing ABFF and giving diverse voices such an amazing platform”.
and then