“Nigerian Prince”, a proposed movie on email scammers, has won a one million dollar AT&T grant at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The movie, written and directed by Nigeria’s Biyi Bandele and Oscar Hernandez-Topete, was announced the winner on April 20, at the Film Festival in New York.
According to media reports AT&T will provide funding of up to one million for Bandele to create his movie.
Tribeca will also provide mentorship from seasoned industry professionals.
The telecommunications conglomerate also plans to distribute the winning film across several of its video platforms.
Nigerian Prince is based on the notorious email scams from Nigerians.
It’s centered on a stubborn Nigerian-American teenager sent back to Nigeria against his will.
Things take another turn when he joins forces with an Internet scammer in order to return to the United States.
Bandele is a Nigerian novelist, playwright and filmmaker.
His directorial debut film “Half of a Yellow Sun” was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival while his other movie, “Fifty” was included in the 2015 London Film Festival.
Bandele also directed the third season of the popular MTV drama series, “Shuga”.