Nollywood Finally Makes It into Cannes Arthouse Film Fold

Today, after over eight decades, a Nigerian film will be shown in a prestigious official position at the Cannes Film Festival.
Nollywood, the frantic Lagos-based film industry that produces up to five films a day, is reveling in the reflected glory after decades of being dismissed for its cheap and happy crowd-pleasers.

According to a research, despite producing far more films annually than Hollywood, Nigerian filmmakers acknowledge that they are still having difficulty reaching consumers outside of Africa outside of the diaspora.

Nollywood's endless stream of low-budget dramas about love, poverty, religion, and corruption—often laced with the paranormal and the conflict between traditional and modern values—has long been enjoyed by Nigerians.

They are not particularly renowned for their quality, and many of them are produced on tight budgets and at a rapid pace.

However, "My Father's Shadow," the first film to be accepted at Cannes, the temple of arthouse cinema, may be about to change that perception, which producers maintain is a holdover from the days when the majority were recorded on video camcorders.

Prince Baba Agba, President Bola Tinubu's cultural advisor, who is attending the Cannes premiere, insisted that Nigerian cinema has matured by entering the competition for the first time.

The first feature film by Akinola Davies takes place during the 1993 coup, which was a turning point in Nigeria's recent history. General Sani Abacha finally came to power after the military canceled the election.

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 said, 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 $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 game-changer, 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 platforms also boomed, particularly in the Muslim north’s “Kannywood”, named after the city of Kano.

There have 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 platform.

We'll begin small and work our way up. Its founder, Mo Abudu, who is also establishing a Nigerian cultural center in London later this year, stated, "We can't keep waiting on everyone else to do this for us."

There has been progress even though Agba acknowledged that the sector confronts "big technological and infrastructure challenges," especially with mobile networks given that the majority of movies are seen on phones.

Our goal is to double the number of screens in our theaters to 300. There are more than 3,000 in Brazil, which has a comparable population, he said.

Nollywood is Nigeria's primary source of soft power, along with Afrobeat music.

Mo Abudu was at the top of The Hollywood Reporter's list of the "40 Most Influential Women in International Film" on the eve of Cannes, which is one indication of its unavoidable ascent.