About 127 local and international films are expected to compete at the 2024 Rivers State International Film Festival (RIFF), scheduled to hold between October 24 and October 27, this year.
Founder/festival director of RIFF, Kate Ezeigbo, revealed this yesterday during a press conference in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Ezeigbo said the festival, which is the second edition with the theme, “The Shift”, received 2,230 films from 172 countries, with the United States of America and India having the highest submissions.
She further revealed that the criteria for submission included cultural analysis, addressing any gender inequality, sexuality, power dynamics, security and racism; issues on social justice at the national and regional levels.
Others, she said, are stories addressing indigenous and cultural or racial groups that are usually marginalised.
disabled and a wide variety of other cultures and communities who make up the diversity of human life as well as stories that tell the realms of technology, psychology, medicine and spirituality as it intersects with human beliefs and practices.
Ezeigbo explained that as part of RIFF social impact responsibility to the creative industry, this year’s edition of the film festival will feature free medicals, empowerment, pitch your project, Tour Rivers Initiative and Rivers Film Project.
The RIFF founder said: “In recent times the sudden death of film practitioners in Nigeria became alarming and scary. We embarked on research and found out that because of the peculiarity of their job being very tedious and time-consuming they barely a have the time to do a routine check on their health.
