Five Thoughts on the 2026 Filmjoint Awards

The Filmjoint Award 2026 announced the winners of its annual Filmjoint Awards, dedicated to celebration of excellence in short filmmaking locally and internationally. The award ceremony took place at the Alliance Française de Lagos’ cinema hall on the 7th of February 2026. In 2024, Gbenga Adeoti (Managing Director) and Dawn Ntekim-Rex (Programs Director), co-founded the Filmjoint as a platform dedicated to centering and celebrating local and international short filmmakers. Four years later, that obsession and drive has consistently grown.  

The Filmjoint has established itself as Africa’s leading platform, committed to the promotion and marketing of quality short films. The platform is designed to create a market for the short film and empower its filmmakers to earn from their work. TFA does these through two programmes: The Filmjoint Premieres, a live event for the screening and conversations around short films, and The Filmjoint Awards, an annual merit-based awards show that spotlights and honours distinguished short films. 

This year, Shall We Meet Again directed by Wapah Ezeigwe and produced by Bisi Alimi, is the most nominated and awarded title at the award ceremony. The film explores the secret love between two Nigerian women and the weight of societal expectations. In an historic move, Shall We Meet Tonight, a queer Nigerian film, won the highest award including the coveted Best Picture award. Adeojo “Story Priest” Emmanuel and Abiodun Udom’s On Our Skin is the second title with the highest award won. Importantly, this edition introduced a new category NAIFF Award for Best AI Film, in collaboration with the newly launched Naija AI Film Festival (NAIFF), a recognition of AI-driven storytelling. 

1. MultiChoice Talent Academy (MTF), EbonyLife Creative Academy and Accelerate TV Filmmakers Project Students are Winning

To enter Nollywood, relationships matter. As a young Nigerian creative, building that network might mean attending any of these three film schools and programs : MultiChoice Talent Academy (MTF), EbonyLife Creative Academy and Accelerate TV Filmmakers Project. Attending means competing and being within  proximity of  young and hungry filmmakers. Additionally, a successful completion of one’s training assures you of one or two film credits and a community of like-minded creatives.  And, if the funded film is good, it can get nominated and win awards at the AMVCA or Filmjoint Award. That’s the case for Adeojo “Story Priest ” Emmanuel’s Isekonu,  Adeojo ‘Story Priest Emmanuel and Abiodun Udom’s  On Our Skin (EbonyLife Creative Academy) and Kolade Mann’s Ovisa. It was inspiring watching these films, even if they win a few awards, get mentioned as nominees. 

2. Dedicated Media Involvement

Filmjoint’s organisers understand the place of Nollywood media in documenting and critiquing its programs, selected films and filmmakers. As a platform, it has continually encouraged and invited the media to document, contextualise and provide comprehensive coverage of their events. The last award ceremony wasn’t different. The media was encouraged to conduct interviews with award recipients and share editorial feedback on the event. This gesture is indicative of a platform that understands the place of the media in documenting  and fostering dialogue and critique about their events and Nollywood trends.

3. A Sustained Commitment to Short Films. 

Curated to create a market for the short film and empower its filmmakers to earn from their work, the Filmjoint operates with two flagship programmes, which are The Filmjoint Premieres, a live event for the screening and conversations around short films, and The Filmjoint Awards, an annual merit-based awards show that spotlights and honours distinguished short films. TFA accolades are achieved following different stages and they involve both a hybrid voting and a professional jury-based verdict.

The platform recently entered a partnership with Fusion Intelligence. Fusion Intelligence came onboard as Filmjoint’s official ticketing and content protection partner. The collaboration is designed to enhance data transparency, protect creative content, and unlock new monetization and distribution opportunities for filmmakers across the industry. 

4. Nominated Filmmakers and Award Winners are Mostly Missing

Noteworthy is the absence of the majority of the award winners and nominees at the award ceremony. In a different context, this could signify protest or boycotting of the award ceremony due to ethical and political disagreement. In some cases, it can be interpreted as a lack of confidence in the awards. This reading speaks to the credibility of the award command and the nominees perceived it isn’t worth their time and presence. It can also be diagnosed, as some of the stand-in filmmakers mentioned, a case of scheduling conflicts. Nigerian filmmakers operate in a cutthroat gig-based economy that might not have granted nominees the leisure of attending the ceremony. Nollywood and its filmmakers operate in an award-obsessed industry so the absence of majority of the award winners and nominees is telling. 

If nominated filmmakers aren’t showing up to an award they’re nominated for, does it speak to the award’s relevance and impact or a disconnection between the award and the filmmakers’ values? I am convinced it’s the former. Filmmakers will run to African Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA) but crawl to African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) and others they consider less significant. The festival isn’t Clermont yet but it’s carving a space for itself. 

5. Is Queer Media on a Rise? 

Wapah Ezeigwe-directed and Bisi Alimi’s produced Shall We Meet Tonight is the most nominated title at the award ceremony followed by Myde Glover’s Isekonu with nine, and On Our Skin (co-directed by Abiodun Udom and Adejo ‘Story Priest’ Emmanuel) with seven. The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best African Film, Best Cinematography, Best Indigenous Film, Best Production Design and others. It won three of these awards (Best Picture, Best Cinematography and Best African Film), becoming the most awarded title of the night. 

Alimi, in his award speech, emphasized the importance of the film to him as a gay Nigerian man whose acting career was put on hold when he came out in 2006, the Nigerian and African queer community and for representation of marginalized realities and love. The gay rights activist and filmmaker said that dreams are stubborn and in a society that wants to erase queer people, love and history, storytelling acts as a willing rebel. “Stories are how we survive, breathe when the water tries to silence, dream and travel across borders, fears and across time.” 

He concluded by saying that the film was able to win the award because they choose inclusion over fear. The filmmaking team and actors choose truths over comfort because they believe that queer Nigerian lives are not just footnotes, scandals, side characters but full complex beautiful human stories worthy of big screens. 

Here are the the winners of the 2026  Filmjoint Award

Best Makeup/SFX — Two of Us. 

⁠Best Costume Design — Ovisa.

Best Production Design — On Our Skin. 

⁠Best Film Editing — The Cry. 

⁠Best Sound Overall — Ovisa.

Best Cinematography  — Ayoola Oladimeji for Shall We Meet Tonight. 

⁠Best Student Film — Omo Eko (United Kingdom)

Best Documentary Film — Shadrack Salami’s Beyond Olympic Glory.

⁠Best Screenplay Original or Adapted — Uchenna Ugwu for  I Too, Crave Death. 

⁠Best Actor in a Leading Role — Korede Lawal for On Our Skin. 

⁠Best Actress — Diekola Blessing for Two of Us. 

⁠NAIFF Best AI Film — Godzilla in Lagos.

⁠FilmJoint Award for Voice of Impact — Toll Free. 

⁠Jury Award for Outstanding Storytelling— Chop, Chop. 

⁠⁠Best International Film — Adi Alfa’s Bleached Out (UK)

⁠Best African Film — Wapah Ezeigwe’s Shall We Meet Tonight. 

Best Indigenous Film (Nigeria) — Adeojo “Story Priest ” Emmanuel’s Isekonu. 

⁠Best Director — Adeojo ‘Story Priest Emmanuel and Abiodun Udom’s  On Our Skin.

Best Picture — Bisi Alimi and Lanre Njoku’s Shall We Meet Tonight.