Nigerian Film Industry Research Articles

Female Filmmakers in Nigeria: Breaking Barriers and Shaping Narratives

This paper explores the significant contributions of Indigenous women filmmakers in Nigeria, highlighting their roles in breaking barriers and shaping narratives within the Nigerian film industry, known as Nollywood. Indigenous women have made remarkable strides in an industry traditionally dominated by men, using their platforms to challenge societal norms and advocate for gender equality. This paper discusses the historical context of Indigenous women in Nigerian cinema, profiling key figures such as Genevieve Nnaji, Kemi Adetiba, Mildred Okwo, and several others. Additionally, it examines the cultural and feminist themes prevalent in their work, the impact of their films, and the challenges they face. Special attention is given to the emerging trend of female filmmakers leveraging platforms like YouTube to produce and distribute their content. Through a detailed analysis of films such as "Lionheart," "King of Boys," and others, this paper illustrates how Indigenous women in Nigerian cinema reshape narratives and contribute to a more inclusive and diverse representation of African experiences. Including visual materials from the films discussed will enhance the understanding of the cultural and thematic elements these filmmakers bring to the screen. This paper aims to underscore the importance of supporting Indigenous women filmmakers and promoting gender equality within the film industry

Nigerian Film Industry’s Socio-Economic Context: Different Waves of Feature Film Making in Nigeria From 1970 to 2024

Nigerian Film Industry’s Socio-Economic Context: Different Waves of Feature Film Making in Nigeria From 1970 to 2024

Child Rights Advocacy Efforts and Nigerian Film Industry: An Analysis of Select Movies

Child Rights Advocacy Efforts and Nigerian Film Industry: An Analysis of Select Movies

The changing narratives in Nollywood movie viewing through online streaming

The deployment of digital technologies for film production, distribution and marketing in the Nigerian film industry can be considered a giant stride, which has triggered drastic changes in the production values, quality and standards of the industry. This study examines the impact of these digital technologies on Nollywood film industry, howbeit, with particular focus on the changing narratives of movie viewing through online streaming. The study adopted the qualitative methodology, and the use of documents and visual media research instrument was utilized. Thus, different types of documents and other visual media like books and other publications, newspapers and the Internet were used to extract relevant data. Amongst other findings, movie viewing in Nollywood through online streaming has drastically changed the phase of the industry, as it has attracted new deals and secured production partnerships, locally and internationally; created new revenue streams for filmmakers and placed the industry on the global scale of vibrant film cultures. However, amidst these plethora of benefits, there are peculiar challenges that unless tackled, this development would not last. Consequently, this study concludes that, to sustain and maximize the gains of online movie streaming in Nollywood to deliver for the greater good, even in the long run, these loopholes in the system like issues bordering on content development, contractual agreements, cyber security, illegal downloaders etc. should be addressed. This study recommends the respective agencies of government and relevant industry stakeholders should leverage on this great advancement, and expedite action in tackling the issues that will truncate it.

Digital technology and Nollywood film industry

Film also known as the 7th Art is a medium for education, information and entertainment which has over the years undergone a series of technological innovations. This paper examines the evolution of cinema from the ‘silent era’ to the ‘new age era’ characterized by a trajectory of innovations and improvements due to technological developments. The paper adapts the Diffusion of Innovations Theory (DIT) propounded by Everett Rogers in 1962 to assess the extent to which innovations in digital technology have altered the old traditional film production landscape. The paper seeks, among others, to determine and highlight the significant areas technology has impacted on the development of motion pictures globally with particular emphasis on the Nigerian film industry popularly known as Nollywood. Our major point of interest is on the roles, impacts, challenges and prospects of digital technology in the areas of production, distribution, marketing and exhibition of films. By using the assumptions of DIT which seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. The paper further reviews relevant literature and some empirical results from scholars to justify its claims. We are able to establish in our findings that digital technology is the driving force of film development which has contributed enormously to world cinema. Furthermore, the rapid development and emergence of Nollywood film industry as the second largest producer of films in the world next to Bollywood of India is attributable to the emergence of digital technology.

Ambivalence of informality: Covid-19 and unmasked precarity in Nollywood

This article explores the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Nigerian film industry (Nollywood) and the local responses of filmmakers to the precariousness engendered by the pandemic. This research adopts the critical media industry studies framework and relies on interviews with 30 Nollywood filmmakers who provided insights on the impact of the pandemic on labour in Nollywood. Theorizing the Covid-19 dynamics as reflective of the ambivalence of informality, this article submits that although informality was central to Nollywood's industrial structure and sustainability, the pandemic triggered unprecedented tensions associated with those informal practices and highlighted existing precarity which had been largely masked by constant availability of jobs. Accordingly, a significant legacy of the pandemic for the industry is the unprecedented gravitation of industry players towards more formalized industrial structures and practices.

In Search of Statistics for the Monster: Piracy and the Precarity of the Nigerian Film Industry

The study investigates piracy from three categories of stakeholders outside the 3% elite population that patronizes the mega stores. The youth represent a high population of movie viewers found in the suburban areas of selected cities. It also took account of those in the universities that constitute major patronage but do not actually pay the right price for the films. There was the need to study the unique and peculiarity of Nigerian piracy, the level of awareness of consumers of pirated products, the level of involvement of the youths, and if operates uniquely, and exhibits different dynamics from foreign examples, as well as the effectiveness of the antipiracy bodies. This study selected 16 low-budget filmmakers and sampled the opinions of 500 online-dependent university students including TV/DVD-playback suburban youth population. Findings reveal that those who advertently or inadvertently patronize pirated movies account for 88%, with 93% proliferation of low-quality pic¬tures. 100% of university students sampled depend wholly on online downloads, except if compelled to stream online. Mu¬tual suspicion characterizes Nigeria’s film industry, and the study identified six categories that unfortunately make the list of collaborators of Nigerian pirates with unregistered marketers accounting for 93.8%, unscrupulous practitioners outside the registered unions (75%), while 53.3% implicated the regulators. Nigerian film piracy exhibits a special peculiarity of illegally copying, printing, and publicly selling these counterfeits with impunity. And sadly, to the chagrin of creative artists. The study concludes that Nigerian pirates and their patrons enjoy the unhindered liberty of operating publicly, and the law enforcement agents do not yet have the magic wand to end it. Getting listed by Netflix has become a major breakthrough, while the re¬turn of cinema viewing centres presently serves as another avenue of direct negotiation and control for Nollywood filmmakers.

Blending Eclecticism and Specificity: The Art of Nollywood Epic Film Costumes

This research explores the unique approach to costume design in Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry. It focuses specifically on the epic film genre and discusses how Nollywood costume designers blend a variety of cultural and historical influences to create costumes that are both authentic and visually striking. It argues that this approach to costume design reflects the eclecticism and diversity of Nigerian culture while also highlighting the specificity and hybridity of the ethnic costumes represented in the film. Drawing on a close analysis of costume designs in Fred Amata’s Ijele (1999) and Kingsley Orji’s Eyes on the Throne (2019), the article offers insights into the creative processes and cultural context that inform this distinctive style of costume design. It uses the cultural hybridity theory by Bhabha Homi to explore the unique approach to costume design in films. Ultimately, the article demonstrates the importance of costume design in Nollywood epic films and argues that it plays a crucial role in constructing the visual and narrative world of these films

Nigerian Film Industry and Screenplay Text: Historical and Linguo-Socio-Cultural Symbiosis

The issue of the development of the Nigerian film industry and the specifics of the screenplay text as a reflection of the linguocultural picture of the world is considered. The question is raised about identifying the linguo-socio-cultural features of the screenplay text formed during the contact interaction of British English and the indigenous languages and cultures of Nigeria. It is proved that the text of the Nigerian film script has all the key textual categories, like the texts of British and American films, but in the refraction of the Nigerian linguistic culture. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by the derived new properties of the Nigerian screenplay text in the process of linguocultural adaptation of British English to the realities of Nigerian culture. The author’s development of a model of linguocultural adaptation of the Nigerian screenplay text is presented and its unique properties at the level of vocabulary and grammar are revealed. Particular attention is paid to the aspect of the sociolinguistic differentiation of the Nigerian society and the identification of errors in the dialogic communication of the characters depending on their belonging to the sociolinguistic type — acrolect, mesolect, basilect. The results obtained can be used for researchers in the field of the theory of language contacts in the field of communicative syntax.

Nature of Nigerian Creative Economy: A Review of the Nigerian Film and Music Industry

Nature of Nigerian Creative Economy: A Review of the Nigerian Film and Music Industry

Documenting Nigeria’s Hip Hop Music Evolution in Nollywood: an Examination of Tunde Kelani’s Campus Queen

It has been established that the Nigerian music industry has grown tremendously in recent times through the popularity and dynamism of the Hip hop genre, which has positioned itself as the mainstream music presently. Likewise the Nigerian film industry now referred to as Nollywood is credited as the fastest growing film industry and rated the third largest film industry in the world after Hollywood and India’s Bollywood and currently accounts for an estimated N 853.9 billion ($7.2 billion) or 1.42 percent of Nigeria's GDP. This paper establishes the interface between popular music culture (hip hop) and Nollywood through the notion of documentation with a highlight of how Hip hop music is being documented in Nollywood formative years either consciously or un-consciously. The paper adopts a qualitative research method with an in-depth analysis of music in the movie-Campus Queen.

Nollywood’s streaming romance

The Nigerian film industry produces approximately 2,500 films a year. With its rapid and low-cost production model, Nollywood has become one of the continent’s most prolific cinema industries. Major digital platforms’ interest has prompted a shift towards better-funded and more diversified content.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Implications of Netflix’s Venture into Nollywood Seen From a Local Audience Perspective

Abstract Within the last decade alone different distribution platforms have emerged in the Nigerian movie industry. One of the most notable and potent among these is Netflix. Employing Disruptive Innovation Theory (dit) as notional scaffolding, this article uses key informant interviews (kii) and focus group discussions (fgd) to examine what Netflix’s engagement in Nollywood means in terms of the viability of other distribution outlets. It investigates the ‘good, the bad and the ugly’ sides of the Nollywood-Netflix relationship from the Nigerian audience perspective to give an understanding that can contribute to Nollywood’s healthy expansion. The study argues that the emergence of Netflix leaves many Nollywood content creators (ncc s) begging for acceptance when their content is adjudged inconsequential. This must be creatively challenged and negotiated through ncc s and distributors using available technologies to improve production values, set up and collaboratively operate multiple online distribution platforms for the Nigerian audience’s satisfaction.

Toward the Platformization of African Film Distribution? Netflix in Nigeria

Abstract This essay provides an analysis of the impact of Netflix on the African screen media sector, by focusing on the Nigerian film industry (Nollywood). It follows the invitation to study Netflix in specific socio-historical and national contexts that several scholars have formulated over the past few years as a way to respond to the complexity of the emerging landscape of internet-distributed television. In order to achieve this objective, the essay focuses on the impact of Netflix’s involvement on the production and distribution of Nigerian content, offering also a few insights on the equally important topic of Netflix’s impact on African audiences. The overall aim is to historicize Netflix’s intervention, detailing the phases of its involvement in Nigeria, its specificities in relation to the intervention of previous local and international actors in the field of content production and distribution (on both streaming and digital television networks), and the controversies its arrival triggers among film professionals in the largest African screen media industry.

The Westernization of the African zombie in Nollywood Films

The Nigerian film industry (nicknamed Nollywood) has, over the years, embraced foreign influences as a form of newness and singularity. Many films produced in the industry have displayed the capacity to re-contextualize and indigenize specific forms and styles associated with the global mass culture, including Hollywood horror films and the zombie genre. Thus, there have been at least two ways of representing zombies in the Nollywood films. While most films have depicted zombies according to local African or Nigerian myths, a certain number of recently produced films have displayed representations of these undead creatures (zombies) which are visibly inspired by the Western imagination or fantasies. This thesis could well be illustrated through a critical study of two Nollywood films namely A.C. Enonchong‘s Witchdoctor of the Living Dead and Sam Perry‘s Outbreak 2020. Using the two above mentioned films as case studies, this paper specifically seeks answers to three research questions: how are Western myths about zombies different from those prevailing in the Nigerian socio-cultural space? How has the zombie filmic genre evolved in the Nigerian film industry and how are Western myths about zombies informing or reflected in selected Nollywood films?

Challenges and Prospects of the Igala Movie Industry (Igawood) in the Quest for Global Relevance

Beyond the more popular indigenous movie industries from the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria; Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba, the Nigerian Movie Industry has witnessed the upsurge and establishment of more indigenous regional and ethnic movie industries. This development is born partly, out of the desire of indigenous Nigerian ethnic groups to tell their own respective stories; an effort towards sustaining the diverse culture which together, make one Nigeria, and also promote respective cultures globally. Adopting a qualitative design, this article examines the prospects and challenges of the Indigenous movie industry of the Igala ethnic group in Nigeria: Igawood in the quest for global relevance. The article projects that Igawood is an efficient tool for cultural integration, propagation, and sustenance, firstly, among people of the Igala ethnicity spread across the globe and also among other tribes of the world with an interest in the Igala culture. Among other challenges, the paper points at finance, the quest to make a profit, the star actor syndrome, relatively poor presence on satellite TV Networks, and lack of requisite technical know-how as factors militating against Igawood. The paper identifies the need for re-orientation and adequate technical training for players in the industry to meet up with the standard and global best practices.

Developing a Copyright Curriculum for Nigerian Universities for the Creative Digital Space

Abstract This paper explores the significance of teaching and learning digital copyright laws within a reformed Nigerian copyright regime. It further analyzes how an experiential and clinical teaching pedagogy, developed as part of a copyright law curriculum, will become an agency to protect, safeguard, and impel the development of Nigerian creative industries, particularly the film sector. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and an emerging creative industrial power. The training and expertise of its legal professionals in the knowledge and creative economy have significant impact beyond Nigeria, across the length and breadth of the other African countries. The article sets out to provide a recipe for a functional approach to the development of a digital copyright curriculum in the law faculties of Nigerian universities as a pragmatic and industry-focused way of teaching while adding value to the creative industries. The paper further examines how the law faculties of Nigerian universities could redesign their copyright curriculum to teach not just theories but, more importantly, the wider policy framework. The paper also explores how to understand the practical, business and economic systems of the creative industries. The paper uses ‘Nollywood’, the contemporary Nigerian film industry, as a case study to continue the discussion on the sustainable development of the Nigerian creative industries.

Cast Me not as a Succubus or a Jezebel: Nollywood Actresses and the Struggle against Women Stereotyping

The stereotyping and sexual objectification of womanhood in Nollywood films have partly been attributed to Nigerian actresses. According to a number of critics and scholars, female actors’ passivity and complicity are to blame for the continuous negative portrayals of women in films. This popular belief follows from the arguable myth that female actors most often accept demeaning roles in films; meanwhile, it is axiomatic that if they reject such roles, androcentric/sexist screen writers will be compelled to develop better female characters for their films. If the above logic seems pertinent, it tends to hastily generalise on Nollywood actresses’ attitude towards the objectification of womanhood. The logic also fails to recognise the grossly understudied efforts made by many Nigerian actresses against women stereotyping in the Nigerian film industry.This paper focuses on these understudied efforts with a view of filling a knowledge gap. Specifically, the paper hinges on secondary sources and critical observations to explore some of the ways in which Nollywood actresses have struggled – and continue to struggle – against women’s stereotyping in Nollywood films. In the first place, the paper examines women stereotyping and objectification in Nollywood films; and in the second it explores three ways in which Nigerian actresses resist their stereotyping in the Nigerian film industry. These include the rejection of demeaning roles, feminine feminist cinema and the tendency to request the same demeaning roles for men.

Movie Success Prediction Using Data Mining

The movie industry is arguably one of the biggest entertainment sectors. Nollywood, the Nigerian movie industry produces tons of movies for public consumption, but only a few make it to box-office or end up becoming blockbusters. The introduction of movie success prediction can play an important role in the industry not only to predict movie success but to help directors and producers make better decisions for the purpose of profit. This study proposes a movie prediction model that applies data mining techniques and machine learning algorithms to predict the success or failure of an upcoming movie (based on predefined parameters). The parameters needed for predicting the success or failure of a movie include dataset needed for the process of data mining such as the historical data of actors, actresses, writers, directors, marketing and production budget, audience, location, release date, and competing movies on same release date. This model also helps movie consumers to determine a blockbuster, hit, success rating and quality of upcoming movies before deciding on a movie ticket. The data mining techniques was applied to Internet Movie Database MetaData which was initially passed through cleaning and integration process.

Nigerian Women Language Use in Home Videos versus Performance Songs: A Critical Discourse Analysis

This study investigated Nigerian women discourses in home videos in conjunction with their live performance song texts to establish that certain portrayals about Nigerian women in the home videos are true reflections of their life style. There have been varied responses to what is created and served to the general public by the Nigerian film industry with respect to certain beliefs about Nigerian women. Most of these studies concluded on the note that most Nigerian women distance themselves from the home videos portrayals- tagging such as‘media constructions’. The study gathered fourteen song texts (seven from Igbo and seven from Yoruba cultures)in conjunction with excerpts from five Nigerian home videos as data. This was analysed using Fairclough’s (2003) three-dimensional method of Critical Discourse Analysis which involves identification and description of social problems through the structure and linguistic features of texts and the interdiscursivity of the text production. The study concludes that some of the portrayals about Nigerian women in the home videos are not mere media constructions but authentic information about the way Nigerian women treat each other and one another. There is clear evidence from the study that fertile women exert aggressive behaviours on the infertile women. Additionally, hegemonic proclivity is also a reality among Nigerian women. Hence, unhealthy relationships characterise the women discourses, especially, between mothers-in law and daughters-in law.