Enugu State has secured the hosting rights for the 2026 edition of the Best of Nollywood Awards, bringing one of Nigeria’s longest-running travelling film awards ceremonies back to the South-East.
The hosting rights were formally presented to the Enugu State Government under Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, with the development announced by BON Awards founder, Seun Oloketuyi.
The 2026 ceremony will mark another chapter in the travelling history of the Best of Nollywood Awards, which has consistently moved its annual celebration across different parts of Nigeria in an effort to take the recognition of Nollywood beyond Lagos.
The development is particularly significant because Enugu had previously been announced as the intended destination for the 16th edition of the awards.
Following the 2023 BON Awards in Osun State, Oloketuyi disclosed that the travelling awards would move to Enugu for its 16th edition in 2024.
That plan, however, did not eventually materialise.
The 16th edition was instead hosted by Kwara State and held at the Sugar Factory Film Studios in Ilorin on November 24, 2024.
The ceremony brought together major names in Nollywood, with Femi Adebayo’s Jagun Jagun emerging as one of the biggest winners after taking six awards, including Best Actor, Best Indigenous Film, Best Costume, Best Production Design and Best Special Effect.
Kwara’s hosting of the awards also became an important part of the state’s effort to position itself as a destination for the creative industry.
Following the successful 16th edition, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq expressed his willingness to host the awards again, saying Ilorin had the infrastructure and environment required for major creative events.
The awards subsequently moved to Lagos for the 17th edition in 2025.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu formally received the hosting rights for the 2025 edition, which was scheduled for December at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island.
The Lagos edition also carried an ambitious plan for an eight-kilometre red carpet as part of an attempt to create a Guinness World Record.
With Enugu now taking the hosting rights for the 2026 edition, the ceremony returns to a state with a particularly deep connection to Nigerian cinema.
Enugu has historically been one of the important centres of film production in Nigeria and has remained closely associated with the development of Igbo-language cinema and the wider Nollywood industry.
The city’s connection with Nollywood is also reflected in the number of filmmakers and actors who have emerged from the state and in the various film activities that have taken place there over the years.
The decision to take BON Awards to Enugu also comes at a time when the state government has been placing greater emphasis on the creative economy, tourism and entertainment as part of its broader development agenda.
For the BON Awards, the move continues the organisers’ long-standing practice of taking the ceremony around the country rather than permanently anchoring it in Lagos.
The awards began in Lagos in 2009 and have subsequently travelled to several Nigerian states.
Previous editions have been staged in locations including Delta, Rivers, Abia, Ogun and Osun, among others, reflecting the organisers’ stated intention of making BON Awards a pan-Nigerian celebration of the film industry.
The Enugu hosting therefore represents more than a change of venue.
It gives the state an opportunity to place its creative infrastructure, hospitality industry and filmmaking community before some of the biggest names in the Nigerian film industry.
For Nollywood practitioners in the South-East, the event could also provide a valuable platform for greater visibility, networking and recognition, particularly for filmmakers working in the Igbo-language and indigenous film space.
The Best of Nollywood Awards was established to recognise outstanding achievements across Nigeria’s film industry, with categories covering acting, directing, cinematography, screenplay, production design, indigenous filmmaking and other aspects of film production.
The 2026 edition will therefore be watched closely, especially by filmmakers and industry stakeholders in Enugu and the wider South-East.
For a state that was once announced as the destination for the 16th edition but ultimately did not host that ceremony, securing the 2026 rights represents a return to an earlier plan, this time with the opportunity to deliver the BON Awards on its own terms.
The coming months will reveal how the Enugu State Government and the BON Awards organisers intend to stage the ceremony and what new initiatives will accompany the 2026 edition.
