What's Hot?
iREP: Celebrating Nigeria’s Coolest Film Festival
US Cultural Affairs Office Commends Nigerian Film Corporation,...
Ooni of Ife Recognises Afro-Brazillian Settlement As Yoruba...
WTD 2023: Lagos Advocates Theatre And Culture of...
Davido Goes Timeless As Fourth Studio Album Drops
Idris Elba Partners Mo Abudu’s EbonyLife On Afro-centric...
Adekunle Gold Signs With Def Jam Records, To...
Hollywood star Edi Gathegi in Kenya, seeks partnerships...
Burna Boy To Co-headline UEFA Champions League Final
Nigeria Decides: Reflections On Lagos, Nollywood And Clean...
The Culture Newspaper
  • Home
  • Arts & Exhibitions
  • Culture & Festivals
    • Culture Africana
    • Culture People
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Music, Movies & More
  • News
    • Travel News
  • Opinion
    • Reviews (The Critics)
  • TCN Literati
  • Tourism & Hospitality
Opinion

From Peace To Nollywood: Towards The Next 30 Years

by Peace Anyiam-Osigwe February 9, 2023
by Peace Anyiam-Osigwe February 9, 2023

The Nollywood Industry needs to find its way back to its purest beginning, where collaboration drove the energy in the room. As the industry grew, unfortunately so did its extreme need to be a vocation filled with envy and competitive spirit. Rather than strive for quality in its realest sense and collobaration in the most creative sense, we opt for individual achievements that ultimately do not move the industry further in any significant way. Certainly, having the highest grossing film or debuting with the largest box office released on a Sunday is worthy of recognition. However, I believe we can strive for more – together.

The recent debacle over the failure of the Nigerian Oscar Selection Committee to choose a film that would represent Nigeria at the foreign language film (Best International Film) category presents a cautionary tale to all of us. The selection committee was to choose from the three films submitted but we were made to deal with issues of ego rather than the quality and eligibility of the films. Is the selection committee to judge or just select one out of the qualifying films? Understanding what roles everyone has to play in the bigger picture of keeping Nollywood going is important because those three films, like a few other releases of 2022, have kickstarted a new era for Nollywood, after its first three foundational decades.

The structure of the guilds system must be adjusted and adhered to in order to help push for further professionalism within the industry. The guilds should be used as gatekeepers of quality control. We must begin to adhere to the professional ethics of filmmaking by being very careful of the foundation of the of the scripts. This is how Nollywood can grow and compete as it begins the next 30 years, following from 1992 to 2022.

Over the years, the biggest issues Nollywood has had is the script and sound quality. No matter what we do, walking down the road to a future that does not include building capacity in this two areas will mean a failure to achieve our ultimate goal of being taken seriously as a film industry.

I believe that in the next 30 years, Nollywood would have built film studios which will help in high production value and quality control. We desperately need to equip and train practitioners in the areas of post production, sound design, scoring and colour grading. 95% of our professional films go outside to have these things done. Yet, we have some extremely skilled people waiting for the right tools and environment to excel.

Our biggest hurdle is the lack of adequate facilities for people to do this work locally.

For us to remain relevant as the kings and queens of content, I would love to see Nollywood look deeper inside: celebrating quality, listening and responding to criticism, and pushing towards higher quality. I would like to see us try harder at sustainable growth that will make us even more relevant at both AMAA and at top film festivals like Berlin, Cannes, Toronto and even Fespaco, Cairo, Durban and AFRIFF.

The wish for Nollywood is to see it grow in leaps and bounds in real terms and not remain constant in the noise of praise amidst mediocrity. We have to move beyond the stranglehold of a cabal that only wants “their people” to benefit from the influx of streamers. Real filmmakers can and should be allowed expression to showcase the possibilities that Nollywood offers. All we need is collobaration, structured financing and grants.

Above and beyond, the stories we must continue to tell about Africa and Nigeria has to be our real stories. The stories of our Kingdoms, our Orishas, and our spiritual life. We must begin to discern the stories told to us by our parents and grandparents and transpose them onto the big screen.
We should be producing cinematic interpretations of the authobiographies of our heroes, such as Jaja of Opobo, the real stories of the IFA or Igba Afa and in everything that represents our essence as a people.
In doing so, we would have succeeded in showcasing the powers of African history, in the fervent hope that informed and committed ‘bystanders’ such as Steve Ayorinde would always be available to document the giant strides that Nollywood is destined to record in the coming years and decades.

**Madam Peace Anyiam- Osigwe, Founder of African Film Foundation, wrote this piece in December 2022 as ‘Encore’ (Last Word) for ’30: Three Decades Of The New Nigerian Cinema’, a book by Steve Ayorinde, Chairman of the Governing Council for AMAA Jury.

30fromnextnollywoodpeacethetotowardsyears
0
FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinWhatsappEmail
Peace Anyiam-Osigwe

previous post
Three Decades Of Nollywood: Scholars, Literary Enthusiasts Hail Ayorinde’s Book
next post
Late AMAA Founder, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, To Be Interred February 15

You may also like

Nigeria Decides: Reflections On Lagos, Nollywood And Clean...

March 14, 2023

Developing a Country’s Ecosystem

March 14, 2023

A legend at 60: Celebrating Jahman Oladejo Anikulapo.legend...

January 16, 2023

Deity Among Scholars: Celebrating Prof. Toyin Falola @...

January 7, 2023

Sammy Okposo: Remembering Celebrity Gospeller Of Note

November 30, 2022

Biyi Bandele Who Came In From The Back...

August 22, 2022

Kizz Daniel, Stars’ Buga And The Curse Of...

August 15, 2022

The Perils of Audience Capture

August 8, 2022

Netflix is eating Nollywood’s lunch. What happens next?

August 4, 2022

Portable’s Disqualification Biased, Dangerous Precedent – Joey Akan

July 27, 2022

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Recent Posts

  • iREP: Celebrating Nigeria’s Coolest Film Festival
  • US Cultural Affairs Office Commends Nigerian Film Corporation, Pledges Collaboration
  • Ooni of Ife Recognises Afro-Brazillian Settlement As Yoruba Territory
  • WTD 2023: Lagos Advocates Theatre And Culture of Peace
  • Davido Goes Timeless As Fourth Studio Album Drops

Sponsored

Recent Posts

  • iREP: Celebrating Nigeria’s Coolest Film Festival

    March 24, 2023
  • US Cultural Affairs Office Commends Nigerian Film Corporation, Pledges Collaboration

    March 23, 2023
  • Ooni of Ife Recognises Afro-Brazillian Settlement As Yoruba Territory

    March 23, 2023

Categories

  • Arts & Exhibitions
  • Culture & Festivals
  • Culture Africana
  • Culture People
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Music, Movies & More
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Photo News
  • Reviews (The Critics)
  • TCN Interview
  • TCN Literati
  • Tourism & Hospitality
  • Travel News
  • Travel Trends
  • Travelogue
  • What's Hot?
  • World Culture

Connect with us

Connect with us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • About Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us

@2019 - The Culture Newspaper. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by Zero-One

The Culture Newspaper
  • Home
  • Arts & Exhibitions
  • Culture & Festivals
    • Culture Africana
    • Culture People
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Music, Movies & More
  • News
    • Travel News
  • Opinion
    • Reviews (The Critics)
  • TCN Literati
  • Tourism & Hospitality