Ebele Okoye (who goes by the artist’s name “Omenka Ulonka”) knew at the tender age of 7 that she wanted to be a “story teller who makes images move” but neither did she know that this was called ‘Animation’, nor were there any possibilities of learning this in her country Nigeria in those days.
In the year 2000, more than two decades later, she moved to Germany to pursue a post graduate program in African Studies at the University of Cologne. Followed by a design-study stint at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf and a traineeship at the West German Broadcasting Corporation, WDR, she finally enrolled for Animation at the International Film School (ifs) Cologne.
Upon graduation in 2004, she worked as a studio animator before going independent with own films as well as International Co-productions, one of which is the German-Bulgarian co-production “Anna
Blume”, winner of the 2007 Robert Bosch Foundation Promotional Prize for Animation as well as the Ritter Prize at the 2010 Zebra Poetry Film Festival Berlin, amongst others.
A two-time winner of the Africa Movie Academy Awards in the category Animation, her 28 minutes short “The Legacy of Rubies” (2015) inspired by an African folk tale, has won many prizes including the best Animation at the prestigious Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) same year.
Ebele’s works, in their diversity always touch across different social niches, themes and culture. For instance: in 2016, her ‘very short short’ “The Man who fell up” from own poem of same title
premiered at the DOK Leipzig under “New German Animations”. Later in 2018, the same film was chosen to represent Nigeria at 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth games film screenings.
Over the years, she has evolved internationally as an active voice in animation and poetry film circles
working as Jury and selection committee member in festivals and programs like the Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin/Muenster, Poetry Film Prize Weimar, Chitrakatha Students’ Animation Festival, Ahmedabad, Madagassy Talent Film Residencey Berlin, Interfilm Festival amongst others.
Ebele Okoye, referred to many as “The mother of African Animation” says she is very passionate about imparting Animation knowledge, and pursues this teaching and giving workshops in different constellations which include The Bauhaus University, Weimar, Zanzibar International film festival, OpenToonz Animation Lab. Additionally, The Animation Club Africa, and Shrinkfish Media Lab (SmedLAB) both of which she founded in 2009 and 2013 respectively.
In January 2019, she started animating in virtual reality.
The multi-disciplinary artist who resides in Berlin since 2008 is also a seasoned Painter, Web & UI designer, Branding & Word press expert. She also is the founder of the intersectional, gender neut and climate awareness labels Olomenka®, Kalodei Berlin® and Efulefu® respectively.
