AFCM Day Four: Well, Nollywood Filmmakers are Critics

After attending the African Film and Content Market day four, it’s easy— not as an imposition but a statement of fact, that Nigerian filmmakers themselves are film critics. The only difference is that, unlike a professional film critic, who answers to an editor, daily and weekly engage in a writerly battle on the page, and articulate their thoughts about  film either through videos and written words, Nollywood filmmakers do what they supposedly know  how to do best: make  films. This much was glaring during the actor-turn-producer-dominated panel moderated by Tope Olowoniyan panel The Creator Economy: YouTube, TikTok & Independent Distribution featuring Bolaji Ogumola, Frederick Leonard, Stan Nze, and Blessing Obasi-Nze. When this writer entered the unforgivably cold panel session room late, the conversation was around the influx of actors turning producers. For Leonard, it was partly economical and less creativity  driven. 

For Nze, it was driven both by the creative and directorial flaw actors have noticed in their films. After pouring significant craftsmanship, on set, into a project, actors, as Nze shared, are dismayed to see that that craftsmanship isn’t translated in the final film. For Obasi-Nze, it was about pushing back against societal stereotypes. As plus-sized and dark skinned actors, they’re either employed to play maids or other plus-sized-adjacent roles. Other times, they’re blatantly told to bleach down their skin. The summary of these divergent insights on why Nigerian actors are becoming producers is that, like a frustrated film critic, they’re tired of how trite, stereotypical, and creatively bland the industry and its films have become. But, unlike professional film critics, their critique of the industry is better expressed by making and directing films and creating multiple YouTube channels that represent the kind of films and stories they champion. As A.O. Scott articulated in his book Better Living Through Criticism,“Every writer is a reader, every musician a listener, driven by a desire to imitate, to correct, to improve, or to answer the models before them. It would be too much to say that every artist is a failed critic, unable to appreciate what already exists without adding to it, but it does not seem to me inaccurate to say that all art is successful criticism.” 

The point being that “all art is successful criticism.” Another way to articulate that is all film is successful criticism. Thus, even if Nollywood filmmakers aren’t Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, and Claude Chabrol who successfully made objectively good films, these Nigerian actors-turned-producers are critiquing the industry by making films. But, despite being “successful critics,” there’s a deficit of attention towards the art and craft of filmmaking. As Ogunmola stated, there’s a need to understand the craft of producing and filmmaking. These new flock of actors-turned-producers aren’t patient enough to learn producing and the effect is the domineering number of sloppy films we have seen.  

The Billion-Dollar Story: Positioning African Cinema as a Global Contender, the Eku Edewor-moderated panel featured Yaya DaCosta, Ifeoma Chukwuogo, Jemilah Alghali, and Femi Adebayo. The session was to think on how creators finance, distribute and monetise their work independently. It was also about audience building, creator partnerships, brand collaborations and alternative business models. Adebayo’s successful community cinema run in partnership with Blue Pictures was used as a model to discuss what it means to build a local to global audience. The panelists reflected on the need to serve the local markets more successfully. But, to serve the local market, as Chukwuogo stated, Nigerians need to stop being poor. As she tweeted after the panel, the “billion-dollar dreams will stay dreams (at least for Nigeria specifically) as long as we remain the poverty capital or whatever new tag is trendy now to describe our unfortunate state of affairs.” The gist being that Nigerians are financially disadvantaged, minimum wage is less than one hundred thousand naira (and film tickets are averagely ₦5,000 depending on the cinema chain and location), and, importantly, cinema is a luxury affair. The effect of this is a poor audience who are financially disenfranchised from visiting the cinema or legally watching Nigerian films on streaming platforms. Adebayo’s solution to this is the activation of cheap and alternative distribution channels like the community cinema. These alternative distribution channels should be cheap and accessible to the average Nigerian. 

The next session is the Audience of the Future: The New Wave of Content one moderated by Hero Daniels and featured Natse Jemide, Maryam “Taaooma” Apaokagi, and Toluwani George. The intent was to have a conversation around how Nigerian creators (not African creators as the panel suggested) can develop, produce and position films that connect with audiences and achieve lasting commercial success. What was admitted is how fried attention span is. Audiences, globally, are searching for dopamine-addled creative works. There’s a heavy priority and obsession with creating hooks. Audiences are swimming in a sea of numerous contents — from microdrama verticals, to AI slop, to skits,  clipped podcasts, and actual films. The challenge for the creative person is finding innovative ways to keep the audience engaged. 

The final and most interesting panel featured Nigerian film commentators, reviewers and a critic. Fittingly titled Who Is Africa Listening To? Critics, Algorithms, and the Fight for Credibility, the panel was pleasurably moderated by A.A Presley and had Irabor Okosun, Zhandie Abigail, and Dami Dowson. Dowson and Okosun had divergent views and Abigail provided the balance. As anticipated, it was an opinionated panel with panelists articulating their opinions in bold languages and manners. This writer was just curious what the audience reaction would have been like if we had more filmmakers in the room.