Nollywood, the second largest film industry in the world, will finally be screened in a hallowed official slot at the Cannes Film Festival.
After nearly 80 years 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.
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.
“My Father’s Shadow” is the first Nigerian film to make the grade at Cannes, the temple of arthouse cinema.
“Getting into competition for the first time shows that Nigerian cinema has come of age,” insisted Prince Baba Agba, a cultural advisor to Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, who is in Cannes for the premiere.
Akinola Davies’s 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.
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 $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 platforms also boomed, particularly in the Muslim north’s “Kannywood”, named after the city of Kano.