MEET TOP FEMALE FILM MAKERS

We are in the days where women take up professions that were male dominated and establish their grounds as gurus in it. We have seen women rise to the challenge of film making and conquer stereotypical paradigms of the past. These days, it is common to associate award winning movies with female directors.
Named in Tribune's analysis of famous female film makers are Nollywood's Emem Isong, Blessing Egbe, Kemi Adetiba, Mildred Okwo, Funke Akindele, Late Amaka Igwe.

Emem Isong

Emem Isong is a leading female producer and has raised the  bar with award-winning Nollywood movies like Promise Me Forever, Girls In The Hood, Private Sin, Behind Closed Doors, Darkest Night, Enslaved, Games Women Play, which she describes as the very best she has ever written. Also a script writer, Emem has done greatly for herself in the movie industry.

Blessing Egbe

Ex-model and Nollywood actress, Blessing Egbe, has a degree in scriptwriting and film production from City Varsity in Cape Town, South Africa and is the CEO of B’concept productions. With five films to her credit; Before the Val and After the Val, African Queen, The Rivals, Working the Lane and most recently Two Brides and a Baby, the filmmaker added a new series entitled Lekki Wives to her credit.

Kemi Adetiba

Almost every popular musician in Nigeria today has Kemi Adetiba on their list of video directors. The young woman has gradually carved a niche for herself through her carefully played visuals. After years of success being in front of the camera, Adetiba enrolled into the New York Film Academy to learn the ropes about being behind the cameras and today, her bodies of work as a director are spread across the African continent and beyond its borders.Adetiba’s short film, Across a Bloodied Ocean, was screened at the 2009 Pan African Film Festival and National Black Arts Festival.

Mildred Okwo

Mildred Okwo is a film director and producer. She was nominated for Best Director award at the fourth Africa Movie Academy Awards. Also a graduate of University of Benin and a US- trained lawyer, she directed the romance comedy-drama film, The Meeting, a movie which won several awards including Nigeria Entertainment Awards, Africa Movie Academy Awards & Nollywood Movies Awards.

Funke Akindele

When actress, Funke Akindele, produced her movie, Jenifa, little did she know that the movie, would get her so many awards including the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Akindele worked in television before switching to cinema, becoming known for her starring role in the family-oriented Nigerian television show I Need to Know.

Amaka Igwe

Late Amaka Igwe (1963-2014) was a prolific, award-winning and widely- acclaimed Nigerian filmmaker and broadcasting executive. She was the owner of Top Radio 90.9 Lagos, Amaka Igwe Studios, and many other companies. Her legacy included being a stakeholder and engineer of the international phenomenon that is now known as ‘Nollywood’, the world’s third largest film industry after Hollywood and Bollywood. Amaka Igwe was an accomplished writer, producer, director, entrepreneur and teacher.

Amaka will be remembered for raising the bar in movie and TV production in Nigeria, setting, attaining and maintaining high standards with her company, Amaka Igwe Studios, at a time when Nollywood was not taken seriously, for not allowing low standards as a means to achieving success and for inspiring many Nigerian movie makers, Nigerians, and the world as a whole.

Source: tribune.com.ng
Photos: Internet/instagram