Nigeria's Nollywood finally makes it into Cannes arthouse film fold

On the set of the Nigerian series 'Yarima' in Jos earlier this year

It has taken nearly 80 years, but a Nigerian movie will finally be screened in a hallowed official slot at the Cannes film festival Sunday.

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.




British-Nigerian actor Sope Dirisu, the star of Cannes film 'My Father's Shadow'

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 is in Cannes for the premiere.

- Pivotal moment -

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.




Nollywood dream factory: a studio worker carries a light on a set in Lagos, Nigeria

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 $10,000 films... all telling unique stories with the soul and heart and spirit of Nigeria," he added.




A customer in front of a shelf full of Nollywood movies in a Lagos shop

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.

- 'Big challenges' -

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.




Nigerian film mogul Mo Abudu

"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.