After being suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Cameroon International Film Festival (CAMIFF) returned in 2021 at the Buea Mountain Hotel under the supervision and sponsorship of it’s founding CEO Agbor Gilbert Ebot popularly known as AGE. Its memories will not been forgotten anytime soon. It’s good to highlight the factors that contributed to its success.
The Genius of Agbor Gilbert
Agbor Gilbert is one of the most important figures, especially in the growth of the film industry in Cameroon and Africa as a whole, though he doesn’t seem to get as much credit or attention as his contributions deserve. According to AGE, the initiative to celebrate and showcase Cameroonian culture through movies and films, was conceived in in 2013 in Calabar, Nigeria.
Even though the initiative has been battling for survival in the past few years, its turnout this year could be a cementing fact that it’s not going anywhere, anytime soon. CAMIFF’s return in 2021 must have been a daunting task for Gilbertthe organizers as they needed to keep up to standard, more troubling without any major sponsors.
According to the CAMIFF founder, most sponsors gave them a condition to move the event to either Yaounde or Douala, if at all they must get their Support. They snubbed their request/demand and went on to organise what could be labelled the best edition of CAMIFF so far, over the years so far. Howbeit that the feedback have been overly positive?
The success of this year’s festival could be attributed to the team’s ability to set strict rules and regulations which were followed by the masses. The branding around the festival was top-notch. AGE and team also had a press conference with the influential media before the show, which brought about some teamwork and positive energy between them and the media, who chose to ignore the negative vibe of the event this time around.
How Ramsey Nouah Lived Up To Expection
Nollywood movie star Ramsey Nouah, who has relished the responsibility as CAMIFF over the years, had been a force to reckon with. Besides the fact that he had a little backlash from the media regarding his fashion Sense, Ramsey didn’t disappoint when it came to living up to expectation.
Being the one who conceived the CAMIFF idea and ushering AGE to it, taking responsibility as an ambassador especially in a struggling Industry like this one. Ramsey did confess that his fear, especially with the coming of the Pandemic was that the initiative shouldn’t die like some others in the past.
Nouah is surely the best ambassador the initiative has. His contributions to the growth of the Cameroonian film industry can’t be undermined, especially being the bridge between the Cameroonian movie Industry and the Nigerian. Ramsey didn’t fail to pave his way into the people’s hearts once again, when he praised them for being welcoming, supportive and passionately ambitious.
He confessed that he even had the opportunity to listen to Cameroon music for the first time since he’s been coming to Cameroon and the artists are quite versatile and creative and he believes all they need is patience to be where they deserve. Your ambassador should be able to link up with your audience and know them.
CAMIFF can be the best event we will witness in 2021 given its hype, performance and feedback. Its success should be applauded. Congratulations to the entire team for pulling through despite all the difficulty.
