Virtual engagement was also in their thousands through the sessions and social media engagement surpassed a million in the week of the festival and continues to grow even after the festival.

The highlight of the Festival was the Awards Ceremony which had over 300 persons present including an impressive 100+ diplomatic officials present throughout the event. The awards were presented in over 16 categories and a special award to the Outstanding Juror and Inspiring Filmmaker. The 16 award categories included the Best Child Actress, Best Student Film, Best Original Score, Best Lighting, Best Sound Design, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Editing, Best Cinematographer, Best Documentary Short Film, Best Documentary Feature, Best Short Film, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Picture.

The biggest award of the night, Best Picture, went to Ukraine which was very timely and was celebrated in grand style at the awards event. The award for Best Lighting won an additional award with lighting equipment worth $3000 donated to the winning film crew by the Aputure Lighting Company in the USA. Also, the award for Best Student Film won an additional award of $1000 to the winning film crew by the French Embassy’s PISCCA Program which was very symbolic of its support to the youth. All the winners were presented with award trophies received on their behalf by their Embassies and supporting Embassies. And the respective Embassies have promised to ship the award trophies to the winners from their countries.

Female filmmakers in Nigeria and around the world have been challenged by this Festival and are inspired to improve their films to be able to compete better globally. And even films that were not selected in this years’ festival shared feedback that they will improve their films and compete again. The Festival has successfully met one of its goals to constantly challenge female filmmakers to raise the bar on their film quality.

There is also a growing interest from the Embassies to better support future editions of the Festival and we aspire to hold the Festival bi-annually to allow for rich planning and coordination between partners and to allow for a richer festival to hold through 1 week and host several rich and empowering sessions in addition to the famous awards event.

In the immediate, the Festival is a significant umbrella that can guarantee sustained empowerment for female filmmakers. And this will embody the immediate activities that will succeed the Festival event. Targeted training and capacity building programs are planned to continue to engage with female filmmakers to improve their film production skills. And the capacity building programs will target female filmmakers in existing groups and associations to ensure sustainability and scale of the impact.