Chinese film ‘The Shadow’s Edge’ emerged as the top winner and received the coveted Golden Jury Award (Overall Best Film) at the 23rd edition of the Abuja International Film Festival.

The awards presentation took place at the festival’s closing ceremony on Sunday in Abuja.

The 2026 AIFF was held from Tuesday to Sunday, with the theme ‘Frames without Borders: AI, Ethics, and the Future of Filmmaking’.

‘The Shadow’s Edge’ was nominated in four categories but clinched three, including Outstanding Feature Film (Foreign), Outstanding Director, and the highly coveted Golden Jury Award. The action-crime thriller, written and directed by Larry Yang, stars Jackie Chan and Tony Leung Ka-fai, marking their onscreen reunion after two decades.

The film is loosely adapted from the 2007 Hong Kong film ‘Eye in the Sky’. Larry Yang won the Outstanding Director award for the film at the AIFF.

The festival recognised films from several countries, including Nigeria, China, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Germany, Cameroon and Russia.

Nigerian film ‘Evi’ won the Outstanding Feature Film (Nigeria), while ‘Yellow Slipper’ clinched the Outstanding Music Score.

Other Nigerian winners included ‘Siri and the Whispering Woods’ for Outstanding Animation, ‘A Night of Gold’ for Outstanding Experimental Film and ‘The Witnesses: Boys Who Lived with Violence’ for Documentary (Short).

‘With Immediate Effect’ won Documentary (Full Length), while ‘Dread’, a South African-British production, won Outstanding Narrative Concept.

Cameroonian film ‘Enjema’ won the Outstanding Short Film (Foreign), while ‘Another World’, from the Russian Federation, won the Outstanding Cinematography.

Beverly Osu won the Outstanding Actress for her role in ‘Ikenga’ (the last festival), while Uzor Arukwe won the Outstanding Actor for ‘Evi’.

Rotimi Salami also won the Outstanding Actor for his role in ‘The Invincible Child (Kilanko)’.

The Outstanding Student Film category was clinched by ‘Wake the Flies’, a Germany-Nigeria production, and ‘Kilter’, from the United Kingdom.

‘Voice of Motherland’ and ‘Depth of Death’ won the Audience Choice Award.

The 23rd AIFF also honoured legendary thespians Dame Ajayi-Lycett and Grace Oyin-Adejobi with the Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Actors Pete Edochie and Adebayo Salami, popularly known as Oga Bello, received the Industry Merit Awards.

AIFF founder Fidelis Duker said the festival was established to encourage competition and improve filmmaking.

“The beauty of it is not winning. It’s that it gets us to begin to compete,” Duker said.

He said the festival had helped filmmakers recognise the need to work together, adding that filmmaking required collaboration in production, scriptwriting and other areas.

Duker said the festival’s vision was to build an institution that would keep growing beyond its founders.

(NAN)