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| Biyi Bandele |
A proposed new movie on Nigerian email
scammers, Nigerian Prince, written and directed by Faraday Okoro and
produced by Biyi Bandele and Oscar Hernandez-Topete, has won a
$1million AT&T grant at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
Nigerian Prince was announced winner on
Thursday, April 19 at the film fiesta after a hard-fought pitching
session tagged ‘AT&T Presents: Untold Stories’ featuring
scripts from four other talented filmmakers.
The winning movie script swayed a
Greenlight committee led by Fiona Carter, AT&T Chief Brand
Officer, after listening to a pitch on its story idea, budget and
film script. Also listed in the committee were Hollywood actors
Jeffrey Wright and Anthony Mackie, Josh Deutsch (Chairman and CEO,
Downtown Records), Lee Daniels (Film Producer), Len Amato (President,
HBO Films) and Frida Torresblanco (Film Producer).
The session was the first edition of
the AT&T and Tribeca new film initiative.
AT&T will provide funding of up to
$1 million for Faraday Okoro and Biyi Bandele to create his film, and
Tribeca will provide mentorship from seasoned industry professionals.
In addition, AT&T plans to distribute the winning film across
several of its video platforms, including DIRECTV NOW, AT&T's
streaming over-the-top service.
Nigerian Prince is based on the
notorious email scams that have proved a plague to both local and
international law authorities. The plot centres around a stubborn
Nigerian-America teenager who is sent to Nigeria against his will.
Things take an unexpected turn when the protagonist joins forces with
an internet scammer, in order to return to the United States.
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