Fatimah Gimsay’s “Black Market”: The Anatomy of a Guinness World Records

How do you set a Guinness World Record? Depending on who you ask, there are varying steps which often congregate into one: be eccentric. That eccentricism makes research and obsession with excellence and success pivotal. This is true for Fatimah Gimsay’s Black Market which set and is currently the world record holder for the largest film screening ever held in a single location. In Gimsay’s account, Nora Awolowo, who doubles as cinematographer and producer, was keen to “do something different from cinema even before we started writing the script.” This desire for a community cinema-esque experience predates their celebrated Red Circle. For Omowunmi Dada, who’s an actor, associate producer, and executive producer through Signet Ring Studios, it was about curating and creating a cultural moment that Nigerians and Nollywood enthusiasts can partake in. “We thought, as filmmakers, the best way to put Nigeria on the global map would be through our craft, and that was why we decided to do this, to go for a Guinness World Record attempt with our film,” she said in an interview. 

Written by Abdul Tijani-Ahmed and Fatimah Binta Gimsay, Black Market was shot in Abeokuta and brings together a cast that includes Lateef Adedimeji, Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman, Itele D Icon, Scarlet Gomez, Omowunmi Dada, Teniola Aladese, Susan Pwajok, Uzor Arukwe, Folagade Banks, Tomiwa Tegbe, Andrew Yaw Bunting, Shamz Garuba, and Adeoluwa Akintoba. The film is a crime thriller set against a gritty backdrop of fuel scarcity and intense economic pressure. The story follows a tight-knit crew of five market women who run a highly coordinated smuggling operation across the Nigerian border. They use their everyday business identities as a perfect cover to move illegal goods, successfully outsmarting both rival gangs and law enforcement. The plot shifts when a ruthless rival faction kidnaps the daughter of Adesua, one of the female smugglers. To save the young girl, the women are forced to abandon their stealthy operations and plunge headfirst into a brutal, high-stakes rescue mission. 

On September 26, 2026, at Tafawa Balewa Square(TBS) in Lagos, Rixel Studios in partnership with Filmone Studios, Signet Ring Studios, and Switch Visuals Production, hosted over 50,000 Nigerians for a single public screening of Black Market and surpassed the current record of 43,000 attendees. Nigerians’ obsession with Nollywood is undoubtable. En masse, they arrive in cabs, danfo and okada, and move, orderly and disorderly, on the queue, unified by the Black Market’s team vision: setting a new record. The N2000 must have inspired more attendance. But, for Nigerian filmmakers, distributors, and marketers, the large number should provide insight around affordability and cinema experience. Accessing the venue — depending on your tag, is both seamless and tedious. There are mixed accounts of peaceful and chaotic entrance to the TBS, stories of disorganization, transportation issues, and, quite frustratingly, the viewing experience handicapped by one blank screen and bad audio. With attendees constantly moving during the screening, there’s an argument that Nigerians were only congregated to  break the record and not necessarily watch the film. This argument has birthed another conversation and question: why are Nigerians not enthusiastically raving about the film? 

Nollywood has spent the last decade steadily expanding its global footprint through streaming platforms, international festivals, and increasingly ambitious theatrical releases. Recently, FilmOne Entertainment represented Nigeria as one of the six African buyers and the only official distributor representing Nigeria at the inaugural TIFF: The Market with the intent to meet with international sellers and industry stakeholders to acquire new titles, build distribution partnerships, and expand the reach of African cinema, with Nollywood content at the center of those conversations. There has also been endless conversations about what kind of films Nigerians are drawn towards. Dammy Twitch’s Call of My Life provided a different argument for what Nigerian audiences will watch at the cinema. The unprecedented commercial success of the film, beside the film being good, lies in the word of mouth campaign that started after the premiere. This unsolicited evangelism compelled Nigerians, in droves, to the cinema, thereby boosting the film’s box-office earnings. Returning to Black Market, should Nigerians discuss the film? Yes. Should Nigerians celebrate the win? Yes. Celebrating the success and discussing Nigerians’ negative experience shouldn’t obliterate the need to centre the film. What we should have is a balance of  enthused foot soldiers championing the film for its merits, creating discussion around its craft, performances, and story as the film prepares for a wider theatrical release. 

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