Winning! Faraday Okoro’s Proposed Movie “Nigerian Prince” secures $1million AT&T Grant at the Tribeca Film Festival

Faraday Okoro

New York City based Nigerian-American Filmmaker, Faraday Okoro has won a grant of $1million from AT&T at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival in New York for his proposed movie, “Nigerian Prince“. The movie which centers around Nigerian scammers was written and directed by Faraday Okoro and produced by another Nigerian, Biyi Bandele and Oscar Hernandez-Topete. The movie was announced the winner after a hard-fought pitching session tagged “AT&T Presents: Untold Stories” which involved four other very talented filmmakers. The session was the first edition of the AT&T and Tribeca new film initiative.

Biyi Bandele

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).

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. Apart from the funding, the movie is also guaranteed a slot at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.

Congratulations to them!