In 100 days, Callywood has recorded remarkable strides in reviving the film industry in Cross River State.
By Staff Reporter
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Published on September 22, 2026
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3 min read
Today marks 100 days since His Excellency, the Governor of Cross River State, Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu, appointed Hon. Eric Anderson as Special Adviser on Callywood. In 100 days, Callywood has recorded remarkable strides in reviving the film industry in Cross River State.
Speaking in a progress report video, Hon. Anderson reeled out the achievements of Callywood under his leadership in the last 100 days.
According to him, Callywood started off with the deployment of two professional filmmakers from the Department of Culture and Heritage to form the Department of Callywood, and further secured His Excellency’s approval to engage 15 other practitioners into the State Civil Service.
As part of its first major outings, Callywood in partnership with the Cross River State Youth Empowerment Scheme (CRS-YES) organized a comprehensive filmmaking masterclass where about 212 participants were trained in over 10 categories including directing, script writing, makeup/SFX, production, content development, cinematography, sound, among others.
The training, which was described as highly successful, brought in top industry professionals such as Ajibola Spiff and Charles Inojie, alongside locally based professionals including OTB, Lord Lash Okoro and Julius.
To strengthen collaboration and create enabling environment for film production, Callywood has embarked on strategic courtesy visits and partnerships with key security and traditional institutions. These include partnership with the Nigerian Police Force, the State Security Service (SSS), Homeland Security, the Palace of the Obong of Calabar, where the Obong of Calabar personally received the team, and the Events Department of the Governor’s Office headed by Mr. Effiong.
In a bid to catch them young, Callywood has also developed a textbook for Senior Secondary Schools on Filmmaking Studies, titled ”A Beginner’s Guide to Acting, Video Production and Content Creation” authored by Eric Anderson, ANIPR, FCAI. The initiative is aimed at exposing secondary school students to the elementary basics of filmmaking and content creation before they proceed to tertiary institutions, especially in an era of pervasive social media influence.
On film productions, Anderson disclosed that within the last few days, two productions by private producers – ”Venom” and “The Prince of Bokondo” – were shot in the state with full support from Callywood. He also featured in one of the productions.
He further revealed that Callywood currently has two major projects in the pipeline – a documentary and a feature film titled ”Crackdown”. He explained that the choice of a security-based film is deliberate, to x-ray and showcase the efforts of His Excellency in tackling insecurity in the state since assumption of office in 2023, which has made Cross River safe for everyone to live in.
Callywood has also partnered with the Creative Designers Guild of Nigeria (CDGN) which will be hosting its Annual General Congress in Calabar in September 2026.
Expressing gratitude, Hon. Eric Anderson thanked His Excellency, Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu for finding it worthy to revive Callywood as a department and for appointing him as Special Adviser, noting that Callywood now has about 20 staff.
“We join our voices to say thank you Your Excellency for this opportunity. We will do our best to bring back the film industry to Calabar and Cross River State at large,” he stated.
