The Ion film festival has been described as the biggest thing to happen to the Nigerian Movie Industry as it has created opportunities for practitioners in Nollywood to partner with their counterparts in Hollywood, Bollywood and other film industries in the world. Thanks to the Rivers State government for being the first state in Nigeria to host the international event for the first time in the African continent.

Speaking on distribution network as one of the key issues that militate against the growth of the movie industry in Nigeria, The Director General of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), Mr Emeka Mba noted that the censors board is doing every thing possible to sanitise the movie industry in Nigeria and to put a stop to piracy through their distribution network. He said NFVCB is not film maker or distributor, but trying to regulate the industry to enable it meet with international standards.

The NFVCB boss stressed that the truth of the matter is that distribution derives from content, if the industry and distribution systems are weak, it will manifest itself with piracy, reduced sales among others which is what is happening now in the industry.

He said what the board has done in the past two years is to try and engineer a process that will yield a structure in the industry which is called the new distribution frame work based on the laws on ground to segment the industryal and make room for structure to take place within the industry, not to produce or finance films.

The Director General also noted that piracy manifest when there is weak distribution in the industry. He said movie producers should take advantage of the festival because the gains are enormous. According to him, Nollywood has struggled over the last 15 years and we have gotten to this level. What we need now is to be firmly implanted, create the connections between the other industries. He said Bollywood of India share, the same similarity with Nollywood, they were informal, but now working together with government and industry people coming together as a result, have created an industry that makes Bollywood thrive today.

He said, Nigerians should learn from what Bollywood has done, he maintained that though there is no one module to follow, the foundamental code code is that we must have a structure because it stimulates growth and guarantees sustainable growth as well as standard because when they are lacking you will find fragmentation in the system”.

On the role of government, he said the Nigerian market is commercially oriented, adding that government can  give financial incentives, encourage training and making sure that film institutes are supported and help facilitate the easy export of Nigerian movies, but we must be clearly minded on what government should do because if we want government to come in fully, it might not be to the interest of the industry, because it might come to a stage where they will be looking for handouts from government.

Also speaking with The Tide Entertainment, a top Nollywood actor, Sam Dede of the Isakabafame said the ION international film festival is a welcome development, but Nollywood has to gain from it if not there is no justification spending the tax payers money on the event.

He said with the big names in Hollywood, Bollywood, Gollywood etc, Nollywood should be able to learn from them in other to move the industry forward which is the goal of the international event.