END-OF-YEAR CONTROVERIES: Nollywood, NFC in cold war over film commission bill

A cold war may well be on between the Nigerian Film Corporation,NFC, and practitioners in the film industry following a bill currently in the House of Representatives seeking to transform the former into the Nigerian Film Commission.

This is coming shortly after several indigenous film makers and marketers converged on Lagos, to condemn a current trend whereby Chinese and Indian films are being re-voiced in Yoruba language. The film makers posited that the act, if not quickly curtailed, is not only capable of eroding Nigeria’s indigenous culture but also, it would constitute a threat to employment generation which the film industry is noted for.

Meanwhile, on the face-off between the Nigerian Film Corporation, and players in the movie industry, the latter is kicking against the film commission bill, on the ground that the regulatory body did not carry the industry along.
It would be recalled that weeks back,

HVP exclusively reported that the NFC has sent a bill to the House of Representatives, canvassing for the establisment of a new Nigerian Film Commission which will empower it to oversee the activities in the movie industry.

According to the regulatory body, if the bill scale through, it would swing into action to sanitize the industry by ensuring that professionalism becomes the top priority of the regulatory body.

However, a public hearing on the bill titled ‘An Act to repeal the Nigerian Film Corporation Act, CAP. N109, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and Re-Enact the Nigerian Film Commission Act, 2016, to regulate the Film Industry in Nigeria, and for other Related Matters, 2015 (HB.150’ was held at the National Assembly Complex on December 6.

Dissatisfied with this move, heads of guilds in the film industry held a press conference last week at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos,lamenting the clandestine manner the NFC went about the matter and called for a total review of clauses in the draft bill.