Edgard Leroy: AMVCA Award Winner, Filmmaker Dies In Lagos-Ibadan Auto Crash

Edgard Leroy, Nigerian-based Cameroonian filmmaker who recently won the prestigious African Magic Viewer’s Choice Award as the Best Indigenous Movie in the Yoruba category, for his directorial debut feature, Alaise, is dead.

It was gathered that the film director died at 26 in an auto accident which occurred on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

Announcing the death of the filmmaker, his colleague and a co-recipient of the award of the Best Indigenous Language Movie or Series (Yoruba) at the AMVCA, Demola Yusuf, noted that Leroy was involved in the accident on Saturday.

Yusuf further explained via his Facebook page that his friend was on his way to a movie location in Ibadan when the auto crash occurred.

He wrote, “It’s with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our beloved Director and co-producer @edgardleroy We lost him to a ghastly auto crash on the 11th of June along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

“He was on his way to a movie location in Ibadan when the sad occurrence happened in Shagamu. Please join us in praying that God grants him one of the best spaces in heaven. His last wish would be for us to never stop giving our best, as he was a passionate creative. May God grant him eternal rest.”

The first of six children, Leroy was born in a small family based off the coastlines of the southwest region of Cameroon.

In an interview, the filmmaker made it known that as a child, he had always been passionate about anything within the media space. This passion soon blossomed into him starting off a career in journalism — on the radio at age 11, with the support of my parents.

Years later, he discovered the desire to tell stories through motion pictures; a passion that made him drop out of university to enrol in a film school.