by Wilfred Okiche

Nigeria’s premier movie star and The Future Awards Young Person of the Year nominee Genevieve Nnaji added another feather to her cap on the night of Thursday 12th May, 2011 when she was awarded ‘Best Breakthrough Perfomance’ for her role in Obi Emelonye’s upcoming Pan-African adventure ‘Mirror Boy’ at the 6th Monaco Charity Film Festival.

Though not physically present, she issued a statement that read: ‘I am thrilled to have received such an amazing honor from the MCFF. I put a huge amount of passion and love into every role I play so it’s wonderful to be recognized not only in my country, Nigeria, but now on the international stage. I would like to thank the MCFF jury, my amazing team, family and of course my fans’.

Ms Nnaji wasn’t the only Nigerian honored at MCFF. The groundbreaking musical ‘Inale’ which features music from the iconic Bongos Ikwe also won the ‘Best Entertaining Movie’ award, while Australian drama ‘Face to Face’ won the biggest trophy of the night in the ‘Best Movie’ category.

The Monaco Charity Film Festival is an annual charity event used to raise money for poor children all around the world, while helping new film-makers gets much needed assistance for their projects.

Oluwapelumi