Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe, founder of the British Urban Film Festival 14 years ago, has been recognised in the New Year’s honours list with an MBE for services to the Black and minority ethnic film industry.
It tops another successful year for Anyiam-Osigwe – earlier this year he was inducted into the Britflix Power 100 list of prominent and emerging figures in independent film and TV.
Anyiam-Osigwe has spent 17 years working in film festivals and awards ceremonies, firstly at BFM (Black Filmmaker Magazine), followed by Screennation and latterly with BUFF (British Urban Film Festival) which he founded in 2005.
The festival came in at No.1 in Metro’s 2016 list of global list of film festivals to attend which celebrates diversity.
In 2018, he was headhunted for the post of Head of Cinema at the Barbican, and appointed a jury member of the BAFTA-recognised Aesthetica Short Film Festival.
He also produced Clare Anyiam-Osigwe’s debut feature, No Shade, the first BUFF Originals production.
The film’s release last November made Clare just the sixth Black British female director to receive a theatrical release in UK cinemas – the film went on to win awards both domestically and internationally.
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Thanks for highlighting this tremendous accomplishment for Emmanuel!
He and Clare are so inspiring – they just get stuff done!