By N’fa Alie Koroma, Freetown.
It was a night of suspense, fame and tears at the Where Else Hall in Makeni, capital of the northern region of Sierra Leone, last Friday 7th January 2017, where the Next Movie Star (NMS) winner, Kai Bockarie Saquee (photo), was crowned.
Prior to the night of the event, a galaxy of movie lovers, house mate fans, entertainment industry gurus and other high profile personalities from all walks of life had gathered at Makeni City, where the maiden NMS event was hosted, to witness the grand finale of the reality TV show.
The ‘most deserving winner’ of the competition, according to the panel of judgesm was Kai, who was crowned out of the 17 participants in the jam-packed Where Else Hall.
He won the star prize of Le 5 million plus a movie contract in Nigeria and the Islamic Republic of The Gambia. Victoria M. Emeh won the first runner up and Dicys K. George emerged the second runner up.
The Executive Producer of Sierra Leone Next Movie Star, Desmond Finney who presented the cheque and his team demonstrated a high level of impartiality as was demonstrated by the jubilation that marked the announcement of the winner by the audience and the participants themselves.
"Tonight, we have come to an end of a long journey. The winners have been chosen based on their abilities, votes cast and our professional expertise," the ace actor, Finney told the cheering audience.
Actor Finney summarized his impression of the winner thus:
"Saquee is a natural leader and could act many roles; he could be a comedian, a religious person, a very serious person when he wanted to, and has something extra ordinary that makes him stand out."
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"Today, as I had said before, whatever decision the judges make, I will respect it. I am happy that I have emerged as the next movie star and will proudly represent my country anywhere in the world," Saquee told the jubilant audience.
The Star Actor, Producer and Director, Desmond Finney explained that 20 participants which included nine females qualified to enter the house, but 17 made it to the house among them seven females and ten males.
He said the contestants spent three weeks in the house during which some were evicted on a weekly basis during the competition which was aired countrywide on AYV Television and was partly sponsored by UN Women, the UN entity for gender issues.
He said they will be forging partnership with people in The Gambia to organize a bigger one that will target the West Africa sub region..
Desmond Finney noted that while the participants were in the house the judges were keenly looking out for a Sierra Leonean with certain attributes such as the ability to be articulate, intelligence, leadership, acting skills and generally someone who could serve as an ambassador anywhere in the world.
During the participants’ stay in the house, cameras were deployed everywhere with the exception of bathrooms noting that they strictly avoided actions that would depict unacceptable conduct.
"Nobody smoked in the house or involved in any immoral activity. During the 21-day period, they had over 30 sessions and they were graded based on those sessions. They were even graded while looking at the cameras. They were acting throughout the process," he said.
The initiative, according to him, was to find people who could be groomed and eventually stand out in the movie industry, emphasizing that the Next Movie Star could be someone who has never acted before or even someone that has been acting but not recognized.
He cited the Nigerian and Ghanaian movie industries, which have many recognized faces, but for Sierra Leone, only a few people are recognized.
The CEO of NMS, M.J Sessy Kamara expressed delight that they have been able to produce 17 actors from the entire competition.
The CEO said the NMS participants were drawn from across the country through auditions that were conducted in Kenema, Bo, Makeni, Waterloo and Freetown in trying to find the next generation of actors in Sierra Leone.
The organizers of the reality TV show, Next Movie Star comprise of movie directors and producers and is a company legally registered in Sierra Leone and limited by guarantee.
Representatives from UN Women, Human Rights Commission of SL, Actors and Directors Guild, Sierra Leone Film Council and a host of industry executives commended the organizers for their courage, commitment and efforts to actualize the project.
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