Peter Obi, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, attend AFRIFF 2018 opening night

Peter Obi, the vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Omotola Jalade Ekeinde led movie buffs and festivalias to the opening night of the

The film festival kicked off in Lagos state, Nigeria on Sunday, November 10, 2018.

The opening night which held at Genesis Deluxe Cinemas, was attended by the founder of AFRIFF, Chioma Ude, Kemi Lala Akindoju, Gideon Okeke, Hilda Dokubo, Ego Boyo and Clarence Chukwurah.

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Other dignitaries include filmmakers and film entrepreneurs such as Ini Edo, Ken Erics, Femi Jacobs, Francis Nwochei, Fred Amata, Uru Eke, Sylvia Oluchi, Mahmood Ali-Balogun, Emeka Ossai, Shaibu Husseini and Charles Novia.

This year, the opening night was made memorable with the South African 2-hour feature film by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, ‘Sew the Winter to my skin.’

This year's film line-up includes a host of entries from Francophone filmmakers as a fulfilment of organisers' wish to honour France and La Francophonie in a long-term vision of artistic collaborations and partnerships.

As is tradition, an array of movies will be screened during the festival's seven-day run as it hosts competitions in several categories including short films, feature films, documentaries, animated films, and short films made by film students.

The first edition of the film festival took place in Port Harcourt 2010, while the 2013 and 2014 editions were held in Calabar.

Lagos has hosted it three times, first in 2011 and then the last three editions in 2015, 2016 and 2017.