Kingdom Film Festival 2025: Towards The Future of Faith-based Cinema and Technology 

The 4th edition of Kingdom Film Festival (KFF 2025) took place at Victoria Island, Lagos, bringing together faith-inclined filmmakers and talents within the creative industry in Nigeria. Partly modelled after other major film festivals in the country and around Africa, KFF 2025 featured exclusive film screenings, keynote speeches, panel sessions, workshops, pitch sessions and an awards evening. The screenings were held on November 25th at Silverbird Cinemas, while the rest of the event was spread out across November 27th and 28th at EbonyLife Cinema.

A slate of films were scheduled to screen at the event: Unbound by Stan Nze, Mara by Bunmi Awolowo, The Middleground by Olumide Kuti, Forgiving The Nightmare by Henrique Franhani, Battlefield of the Mind, and wordless short film The Life— each with dynamic themes that appeal to the complexities of human existence. However, the most conspicuous and accessible part of the three-day occasion seemed to be the conversations that provided insights on different sectors of the creative industry that the Christian curators and audience engage with.

Under the theme “Creators Universe”, KFF 2025 drew attention to the use of film and technology for designing the future. Guests in attendance included actor and filmmaker Stan Nze; producer Toyosi Etim-Effiong; filmmaker Femi Odugbemi; pastor, gospel filmmaker and General Overseer of Mount Zion Ministries Mike Bamiloye; and media personality Chude Jideonwo; among many others.

Speaking on the topic “Beyond The Screen: Exploring the Intersection of Acting and Emerging Technologies (Virtual and Augmented Realities), Stan Nze briefly interrogated the emergence and adoption of virtual realities in modern storytelling. While he noted the growing influence of computer-generated imagery and other forms of advanced technology in the global film ecosystem, citing the Avatar franchise as a reference, he acknowledged that there was still a lot to catch up with in Nollywood. He then branched into Artificial Intelligence, posing a question, familiar but troubling nonetheless: can AI take the jobs of actors? The simple answer to the question is “no,” but it is really not that simple.

While there is consensus about the possibility of AI in film challenging actors to improve on their craft and deliver with more believability and precision, what we are not exactly sure about is how AI-generated images of actors can co-exist with real humans in Nollywood productions and help those humans to be better actors. Nze’s presentation does not seem to make this clear. Also, there are ethical and legal concerns that come with using AI-generated images of actors in place of real talents themselves entirely in short and feature films. These nuances are not explored in Nze’s discourse. But then, he seemed to agree that, “what we need to start thinking about is how to collaborate with it, not fight it.”

True to the actor’s words, there have been recent attempts to incorporate CGI technology in storytelling in mainstream Nollywood. Examples are available in Tosin Igho’s supernatural action thriller Suspicion where Nze plays the lead role, as well as in Mikolo, Casa De Novia and Jagun Jagun, made under the aegis of the Niyi Akinmolayan-led Anthill Studios. However, this adoption still occurs at a sluggish pace and with less conviction due to the high cost of running such technology. Not many major studios in Nollywood seem to possess the wherewithal.

According to the official website, Kingdom Film Festival, founded by Ewomaoghene Luther-Abegunde, is an avenue for bold, innovative and adventurous filmmakers to showcase faith-based films and secure distribution plans for them. In an industry that largely caters to general, secular concerns, particularly in theme and style, KFF provides an alternative exhibition route for filmmakers with carefully curated works. The niche gathering allows like-minded creatives with common values to interact within a limited space. Through visual storytelling, participant filmmakers express messages of hope, grace and the love of God in a manner that is highly creative and harnesses the potentials of knowledge and ultramodern technology.