Latest news with #Nollywood
BBC News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Who be Nigerian actress Angela Okorie wey dey di centre of Nollywood drama?
Celebrity life dey come wit fame, influence, money and constant public drama wey dey make dia life different from ordinary pesin. Nollywood actress Angela Okorie don dey di centre of di ongoing gbas-gbos between am, Mercy Johnson and Regina Daniels wey dey trend ontop social media. Angela recently make one post ontop social media say she don forgive Mercy Johnson, wey she bin get beef wit but Regina Daniel respond say "we no dey forgive for dis side". Na dis make Angela fire back. She verbally insult Regina Daniels claiming Regina marry her husband, Nigeria politician Ned Nwoko for money. Regina deny her claim and respond say na Angela dey beg her husband make im support am financially for her next project. Afta days of staying quiet, Mercy Johnson don tok say she go speak up for hersef and clear di air about di allegations against her. Who be Angela Okorie Angela Okorie na ogbonge musician and actress for Nollywood wey start her career as a model, bifor she break into stardom for 2009 wit her first feem 'Holy Serpent' and she don feature for several movies including 'Heart of a Widow' and 'Secret Code.' She don win several awards for di Nigeria movie industry. Angela win di 'Best Supporting Actress' category for di 2015 edition of di City People Entertainment Awards. Angela come from Enugu State, southeast Nigeria, but dem born am for Cotonou, Benin Republic, bifor she relocate to Nigeria wia she bin start to model for cosmetic brand for 2005 until she find her real passion wey be acting for 2009. Di actress get one pikin from her previous marriage wit Chukwuma Orizu. Di two dey togada for ten years bifor Angela announce her divorce ontop Instagram in 2015. She claim say her ex-husband no wan make she dey work as actress but di two still maintain dia relationship and dem still dey co-parent dia son. Beef for Nigerian entertainment industry Beef for Nigerian entertainment industry no be new tin. From music to movies, drama between celebrities don become almost as popular as di work dem dey produce. Weda na about ego, competition, betrayal, or just plain misunderstanding, beef dey always make headlines, and sometimes e dey even boost careers. For Nollywood, beef fit spark between actors, directors, producers, or even influencers. Many times, na ova who dey inside big role, who dey earn more endorsement deals, or who dey get more attention from di media. Oda times, na about personal issues wey dem bring into public space. E fit also be old friendship wey turn to enmity or comments wey pesin make for interview wey go di wrong way. Music is even dey more notorious. From di days of 2Baba vs Blackface, to more recent beef between new cats for di music industry, Nigerian entertainment industry don see im fair share of ego battles. But shey na all beef dey bad? Some pipo believe say e dey create healthy competition. Wen two top entertainers dey compete, dem dey often drop dia best work. Di fan and di industry benefit in dat manner. But beef fit lead to division as fans dey pick sides and engage in toxic trolling online.
New Straits Times
2 days ago
- Business
- New Straits Times
#SHOWBIZ: Nigeria's Nollywood finally makes it into Cannes
IT has taken nearly 80 years, but a Nigerian movie was finally screened in a hallowed official slot at the recent Cannes film festival. After decades of being written off for its cheap and cheerful crowd-pleasers, Nollywood — the frenetic film industry based in Lagos which churns out up to five films a day — is basking in the reflected glory. But producers admit that it is still struggling to reach audiences outside Africa beyond the diaspora despite making way more films every year than Hollywood. Nigerians have long lapped up Nollywood's never-ending deluge of low-budget dramas about love, poverty, religion and corruption, often spiced with the supernatural and the clash between modern and traditional values. Not exactly known for their quality, many are shot at breakneck speed on shoestring budgets. But that image — which producers insist is a hangover from the days when most were shot on video camcorders — may be about to change with 'My Father's Shadow', the first Nigerian film to make the grade at Cannes, the temple of arthouse cinema. "Getting into competition for the first time ever shows that Nigerian cinema has come of age," insisted Prince Baba Agba, a cultural advisor to Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, who was in Cannes for the premiere. PIVOTAL MOMENT Akinola Davies' first feature is set during the 1993 coup, a pivotal moment in Nigeria's recent history, when the military annulled the election and General Sani Abacha eventually took power. This "lost chance" when Akinola said the "rug was pulled away and everyone's dreams of democracy were just taken away", still marks the country. The semi-autobiographical story, featuring 'Gangs of London' actor Sope Dirisu, has two small boys following their father through Lagos as the coup unfolds. And the film is no one-off "unicorn", Agba argued. Editi Effiong's crime thriller 'The Black Book' topped the global lists on Netflix last year, including being number one in South Korea. "We have had films going to major festivals and we have won prizes at Sundance," he told AFP, pointing to 'Shine Your Eyes' — a hit at the Berlin film festival. 'Eyimofe (This Is My Desire)' has been picked up by the prestigious streaming and distribution network Criterion Collection. "It was fully shot in Nigeria, with Nigerian producers, Nigerian finance, everything," Agba added. "We are still making an awful lot of films, but now in all the strata, from the bottom to the top," he added. "You have people doing million-dollar productions, and you have people doing US$10,000 films... all telling unique stories with the soul and heart and spirit of Nigeria," he added. Tax breaks for filmmakers — now passing through parliament — could be a gamechanger, he said, boosting Nollywood's new "penetration internationally thanks to streaming and co-productions". Big US streamers began to dip their toe during the pandemic, with Netflix picking up 'Blood Sisters', 'Man of God' and the musical 'Ayinla' while local industries also boomed, particularly in the Muslim north's "Kannywood", named after the city of Kano. SOFT POWER There has since been a few big bumps in the road, however, with Amazon closing down its Africa operation last year. Netflix has also hit the brakes hard, industry insiders in Cannes told AFP, although officially it's still business as usual. Big local players, however, are angling to step into the gap with the Ebonylife Group — a Nollywood powerhouse — about to launch its own platform. "We will start small and we will build... We can't keep waiting on everyone else to do this for us," said its founder Mo Abudu, who is also opening a Nigerian cultural hub in London later this year. While Agba admitted the industry faces "big technological and infrastructure challenges", particularly with mobile networks as most films are seen on phones, there has been progress. "We hope to double our (cinema) screens to 300. Brazil, with a similar population, has over 3,000," he said. Along with Afrobeats music, Nollywood is Nigeria's main source of soft power. One measure of its ineluctable rise is that when The Hollywood Reporter named its "40 Most Influential Women in International Film" list on the eve of Cannes, Mo Abudu was at its very top.
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Nollywood does not require validation — It requires infrastructure
Observers of Nigeria's participation at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival may have been tempted to conclude that Nollywood had finally 'arrived' on the global stage. In truth, it arrived long ago. What is new — and far more consequential — is the industry's gradual transition from an informal creative engine to an emerging economic sector. For decades, Nollywood has been defined by its prolific output, entrepreneurial spirit, and cultural reach. Yet, despite producing thousands of films annually and commanding vast audiences across the continent and diaspora, the industry has remained largely excluded from the frameworks that enable capital efficiency, export readiness, and structural longevity. This year, however, a notable shift took place — not in the visibility of Nigerian content, but in the articulation of its underlying commercial logic. Nigeria's engagement at Cannes went beyond screening films. It introduced a strategic proposition: that Nollywood must be understood and supported not simply as a cultural asset, but as an economic one. From Applause to Infrastructure African creative industries have long been subject to what might be described as 'symbolic capital fatigue': high-profile festival showcases, streaming acquisitions, and international press coverage — with little investment in the underlying infrastructure required to convert such exposure into long-term value. This pattern has produced recognition, but not reliability. At the Nigerian International Film Summit, held during Cannes, that paradigm was openly challenged. Kene Okwuosa, CEO of Filmhouse Group, one of West Africa's leading entertainment conglomerates, offered a rare and unflinching assessment: 'Nollywood isn't just content,' he stated. 'It is capital. But capital without systems does not circulate.' This distinction is vital. Despite Nollywood's cultural significance, its economic trajectory has been constrained by the absence of reliable data, rights management systems, scalable distribution models, and formalised financing mechanisms. What Kene Okwuosa and a select group of Nigerian executives are advocating for is a fundamental repositioning — from a content industry to a creative economy. Visibility Is Not Maturity There remains a widespread misconception — particularly among global observers — that visibility is indicative of maturity. Yet the vast majority of Nigerian content remains commercially fragile: underprotected, underleveraged, and structurally disconnected from predictable revenue streams. Filmhouse offers a counterpoint to that fragility. Since its inception in 2012, the company has built a vertically integrated infrastructure that combines local exhibition (now at 55 screens), exclusive distribution rights for major Hollywood studios, and the development of Nigerian intellectual property into scalable franchises. This includes titles such as Everybody Loves Jenifa and Sinners, which are achieving commercial milestones typically reserved for international blockbusters. In the first half of 2025 alone: Sinners grossed just under ₦750 million at the domestic box office within six weeks. Everybody Loves Jenifa surpassed the ₦1 billion mark, setting a new benchmark for Nigerian cinema. Filmhouse is targeting $50 Million in group revenue by 2030, supported by co-productions, regional licensing and platform-neutral monetisation strategies. These figures are not anomalies; they represent the early architecture of a repeatable business model. A Sector at an Inflection Point As global streaming platforms retreat from speculative international ventures and become more risk-averse, the imperative for African creative industries is clear: they must reorient from donor-driven optics to market-driven logic. The future of Nollywood lies not in external validation, but in internal coherence — in systems that allow capital to move, content to scale, and talent to retain equity in the value it creates. What Cannes Signified — And What It Did Not Nollywood's formal inclusion in the Marché du Film this year was a meaningful milestone. But it should not be mistaken for structural momentum. Most African creative ecosystems remain undercapitalised, under-regulated, and operationally fragmented. Without data transparency, enforceable rights frameworks, cross-border licensing mechanisms, and regional distribution agreements, stories will remain culturally important but economically undervalued. What executives like Okwuosa are articulating is a necessary shift in language — from validation to valuation. The Broader Stakes Nollywood is not merely a cultural force. It is a major employer, a driver of youth engagement, and a soft power asset. But its future will depend less on the quality of its storytelling — which has never been in question — and more on its capacity to institutionalise the fundamentals of a modern industry: ownership, licensing, monetisation, and policy alignment. What Nigeria requires now is not greater exposure, but deliberate investment in regulatory reform, structured financing, regional co-production treaties, and the development of intra-African distribution pathways. In that context, 2025 should not be seen as the year Nollywood 'arrived.' That milestone passed years ago. Rather, this may be remembered — if the moment is sustained — as the year Nigeria began to formalise the business of storytelling.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Seven Doors: sweeping Nigerian Netflix series masters the art of storytelling
From the opening credits of the new Netflix six-part series Seven Doors, the viewer is poised for a captivating cinematic experience. An array of sculptures dot the landscape as a montage of scenes unfolds, establishing the back story of the historical epic that is about to be played out. Femi Adebayo, the actor turned director and producer, had a huge hit in 2023 with the film Jagun Jagun (The Warrior), a historical epic love story that he produced. Now he's back on Netflix acting in, producing and co-directing Seven Doors. As a theatre professor, author, playwright and film scholar I follow the output of Nollywood. Nigeria's thriving film industry is increasingly attracting higher budgets and producing films and series of high screen value. Seven Doors is one of these. Seven Doors has some weaknesses, like not knowing the specific period the beautifully designed costumes represent, but it's mostly a masterpiece. It's a metaphor for Nigeria's current realities. For their leading roles, Adebayo won the lead actor award at the 11th edition of the Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards on 11 May and Chioma Chukwuka won lead actress. The film also won Best Score/Music. I find the plot very intricate, exciting and engaging. The cast also nails it. Among them are Chioma Chukwuka Akpotha, Hafiz Oyetoro, Adebayo 'Oga Bello' Salami, Gabriel Afolayan, Jide Kosoko, Dele Odule, Muyiwa Ademola and Adebayo himself. No better cast could have interrogated the world of Yoruba culture and myth that Nollywood is currently exploring. Seven Doors opens eerily, with a group of seven female characters who appear as if in trance from a bush path. At the call of their names by a priest, each falls off a cliff into a cascading waterfall, hitting their heads on stones at the bed of the fall. The scene is swiftly succeeded by the introduction of a young family of four on a lawn tennis court in the middle of a game. The line at the end of this scene, 'We all win together in love', resonates throughout the movie's narrative. The story also revolves around them. A door can be an opening or a barrier. The six episodes are each creatively titled: Door Threshold, Door Jamb, Door Frame, Door Lock, Door Swivel, and Door Peephole. The audience is left to imagine and add the title for the seventh 'door', perhaps. Each episode provides access to the intriguing story as it unfolds. The story begins in the ancient town of Ilara and excavates a sacrilegious crime – two princes as siblings aspire to become the Oba (king and ruler) of their kingdom. The Ifa oracle, the last arbiter in such matters, counsels that both princes are eligible and will rule over the kingdom with prosperity following. However, the way forward is for them to have a heart-to-heart talk among themselves so that one withdraws from the race. One remembers that recently, a state government, Oyo, in south-west Nigeria, sought the counsel of an Ifa priest to determine who should be the Alaafin of Oyo, a prominent king. What follows in the narrative of Seven Doors is disastrous: the younger prince strangles his elder brother and cunningly gets the throne, setting the tone for the calamity that besets the kingdom. Flash forward to the present. Adedunjoye, a young prince of the Adekogbe Ruling House, turns down the choice to be the next king, Onilara of Ilara. There is an echo of the recent not-too-young-to-run agitation by a section of the younger generation in Nigeria. Read more: Seven Doors boasts aesthetically designed period costumes (Lola Awe and Yolanda Okereke) and makeup and special effects (Hakeem Onilogbo). The hairstyles (Oyewale Omolara), props, vehicles and other details (Olorunnisola Omowonuola) show that the story is set in Nigeria's 1950s-1960s. I was impressed by the art direction and scenography in the film, handled by Olatunji Afolayan, right from the opening montage, with the credits rolling and superimposed on the sculptured figurines (handled by Gabriel Udeh and Abayomi Olamakinde). To me, this is a celebration of the culture and the past of the traditional institution. The post-production is clinical too. Overall, I like the non-intrusive special effects in the movie. The subtle way the filmmaker used each scene and each episode to make different statements on the past, present and future is commendable. It comes with the impression that the sins of the father can become a stumbling block to the sons. It is a well-handled, visually appealing storytelling. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Adediran Kayode Ademiju-Bepo, University of Jos Read more: Funding terror: how west Africa's deadly jihadists get the money they need to survive Colonial-era borders create conflict in Africa's oceans – how to resolve them Why Meta is in trouble in Nigeria and what this means for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users Adediran Kayode Ademiju-Bepo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
France 24
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- France 24
Cannes 2025: Nollywood basks in spotlight as Nigerian film finally makes the cut
Nollywood's Cannes moment has finally come. After decades on the sidelines of the world's most prestigious movie showcase, Nigeria is making a splash in Cannes this year with a first-ever feature film in the festival's official lineup – backed up by a slew of producers and officials determined to turn Africa's leading film industry into a global giant. Leading the charge is director Akinola Davies Jr, whose debut feature 'My Father's Shadow', featuring 'Gangs of London' star Sope Dirisu, screened in the festival's Un Certain Regard segment dedicated to emerging filmmakers. 'I always heard about Cannes when I was growing up and to find myself here with my first film in the most prestigious festival in the world is a bit surreal,' says the filmmaker, writer and video artist whose work is based between Nigeria and the UK. 'Being the first Nigerian film selected at Cannes is also something very special,' he adds. Set over a single day in Lagos in 1993, 'My Father's Shadow' follows two boys trailing after their absent father through the bustling metropolis as the country teeters on the brink of yet another military coup. Based on a screenplay by Davies' younger brother Wale, it's a deeply personal story for the two siblings who were both toddlers when their father died. 'Nigerian men are still expected to provide for their families, which means they're away working most of the time, and sometimes far away,' says the filmmaker. 'We wanted to explore this question of which is more important: the frantic quest to earn a living or spending more time with those you love?' Davies shot the film over six weeks, including in Lagos, the most densely populated city in Africa. He likens the experience to a 'logistical Olympics'. 'The film industry is massive in Nigeria, but with its own way of doing things,' he explains. 'Every day it felt like we had to move mountains.' Second only to Bollywood Nigeria's film industry has expanded dramatically over the past three decades to become the world's second most prolific, trailing only India's. It churns out some 2,500 films each year, almost five times as many as the United States. Most are produced in a matter of weeks, on shoestring budgets. They tend to carry a distinctive cultural imprint based on the everyday concerns of Nigerians, often spiced with the supernatural. 'It's a fantastic and extremely dynamic industry,' says Davies. 'Nollywood was born out of necessity. People who wanted to be part of the film world picked up VHS camcorders and just started making their films.' 09:09 Despite its massive output, the industry has traditionally struggled to reach beyond continental audiences and the African diaspora. 'As it comes from a densely populated country with a large diaspora, it's a cinema that can tend to be a little insular, wanting to tell its own stories for its own audience,' Davies explains. 'But it's also a young cinema, only about thirty years old." Amazon's volte-face Nollywood first took off in the 1990s in the wake of an economic downturn that closed the country's cinemas and fostered the emergence of a homegrown industry centred on films produced and distributed directly on video cassettes. Since then, the industry has grown exponentially, spawning local offshoots – such as the Muslim north's 'Kannywood', named after the city of Kano – and catching the eye of streaming platforms that have helped expand its international reach. But there have been setbacks, too. Amazon closed down its Africa operation last year in a major blow to local industries. Business insiders say Netflix is also poised to hit the brakes, making Nigeria's Cannes breakthrough all the more timely. The Nigerian government has sent a delegation to the French Riviera gathering to launch a new initiative dubbed 'Screen Nigeria', designed to raise Nollywood's global profile and attracting foreign investment. It is part of a wider development programme that aims to create two million jobs in tourism and the creative industries and contribute $100 million to Nigeria's GDP by 2030. 'Some people see the withdrawal of streaming platforms as a crisis. I think it's more of an opportunity to see how we can create our own distribution system,' says Nigerian film producer Lilian Olubi. 'Africa, as a whole, has the people and the talent to meet this challenge.' Showcasing 'our own stories' Olubi is in Cannes to present 'Osamede', a big-budget historical fantasy set during the British invasion of 1897. It tells the story of a young orphan girl with magical powers who sets off on a mission to save her kingdom from colonial invaders. Based on a Beninese legend, the Nollywood-style blockbuster is also inspired by Africa-set Hollywood action epics such as 'Black Panther' and 'The Woman King'. Its producer is counting on Cannes, home to the world's largest film market, to land deals with international distributors. 'In Africa, we have our own hero stories, but they are very local, and it is important to showcase them,' says director James Omokwe at the film's market screening. 'To make a profit from a film like ours, it's essential to be distributed outside Nigeria, both on the continent and overseas.' Omokwe, who is attending his first Cannes Film Festival, says Davies' selection in the official lineup is a boon for all Nigerian filmmakers. 'This will open new doors for our industry,' he explains. 'It's an international spotlight for our work.' The Cannes imprimatur sanctions Nollywood's 'international credibility', adds his producer Olubi. 'It's proof that our creativity is real and powerful.'
