Two Nigerian filmmakers, Faraday Okoro and Biyi Bandele have won $1M grant at Tribeca Film Festival, New York to develop their feature film, Nigerian Prince.
The grant awarded the filmmakers will be used to develop the feature film, Nigerian Prince, which was chosen out of five finalists by a panel that includes filmmaker, Lee Daniels.
The New York University film school graduate will shoot Nigerian Prince in Nigeria, and might feature Chiwetel Ejiofor, whom he has already pitched the project to, information has it.
Written and directed by Okoro, the movie will be produced by Biyi Bandele and Oscar Hernandez-Topete.
Biyi Bandele made his directorial debut with the 2013 movie, Half of a Yellow Sun. He also directed the third season of the critically acclaimed Shuga as well as Fifty.
Set in Lagos, the film follows the story of a stubborn Nigerian-American teenager forced to go to Nigeria against his will. He joins forces with his cousin, an internet scammer, in order to return to the United States.
A New York City based Nigerian-American filmmaker, Faraday Okoro graduated with distinction from Howard University and has MFA in filmmaking from NYU Film School.
His debut short film, Full-Windsor screened in 14 major film festivals, including the Los Angeles Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival among others.
The grant, according to the organisers, is a new initiative introduced to the program with the aim of helping emerging filmmakers.
