By Ernest Bazanye
Ms Lupita Nyong’o pleased news magazines when she announced that she is in works to produce a TV miniseries based on Americanah, the award-winning bestselling novel from Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie.
This news, from the star of Us, has made Africa ecstatic. If you feel left out, here is the simple explanation.
Continue reading “Why is Lupita Nyong’o making Chimamanda’s Americanah?”
On April 1st 2019, The Official Convention of The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), CinemaCon recognized the Nigerian movie industry with the Emerging Market Award at Ceasar’s Palace, Las Vegas, U.S.A.
The award was presented to CEO of The Filmhouse Group, Kene Okwuosa and MD, FilmOne Production and Distribution, Moses Babatope.
Continue reading “CinemaCon celebrates Nigerian cinema with the Emerging Market Award in Las Vegas”
Kenyan Lupita Nyong’o has said the Horror film Us took an emotional toll on her and it was exhausting as she had to play different versions of the same character
“This movie stretched me, it bent me, it cost me a whole lot,” she told the BBC’s Radio 1Xtra. Us is a horror film written and directed by Oscar-winner Jordan Peele – the man behind Get Out.
Continue reading “Lupita Nyong’o: Horror film Us took an emotional toll on me”
Global streaming giant Netflix has appointed Kenyan award-winning TV producer and Spielworks Media chief executive Dorothy Ghettuba as its manager for International Originals.
The move comes after global streaming giant Netflix announced last year that it would commission original shows from Africa by 2019.
This could increase demand for the platform among viewers from the region and eventually reduce the cost of access.
“Telling our African stories. Onwards and Upwards,” said Ms Ghettuba in an Instagram post announcing her appointment.
Continue reading “Netflix appoints Kenyan as manager International Originals”
Award-winning U.S. actress Viola Davis is set to produce an adaptation of Octavia Butler’s science fiction novel, Wild Seed, which the script is set to be written by Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor and Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu.
Continue reading “Okorafor, Kahiu to work on movie based on U.S. author Octavia Butler’s book”
By Margaetta wa Gacheru
The team was offering aspiring young filmmakers a chance to take an online documentary film-making course run by Atlanta-based filmmakers Bud Simpson and James Martin. Kenyans selected for the course would then take part in making a film short or two that highlighted elements of contemporary Kenyan culture.
“More than 300 Kenyans applied to take the course,” says Evie Maina, the former anchorwoman of local TV shows like KBC’s Art-itude and Arts and Culture as well as KTN’s Artistic Thursday.
Continue reading “US Online course jumpstarts Kenyan film-making”
By Jeffery Fleishman
Those times of on-the-fly editing and pocket-change financing have since grown into one of the largest film industries in the world, a quicksilver business that is as attuned to juju priests as it is to the love affairs and nightclubs of the new rich.
The reach of what is known as Nollywood often strikes Kemi Adetiba, one of its most acclaimed directors, when she’s in Jamaica or New York. A taxi driver will invariably say, “Oh, God, I love Nigerian films” while waxing on about how those stories connect him to ancestors who centuries before had been uprooted from Africa by slavery and colonialism.
Continue reading “Watch out Hollywood, Nollywood is coming to town for a festival of African film”
The movie industry in Nigeria (Nollywood) has come a long way from catering to just its local audience.
These days, Nigerian movies are gradually going global and being appreciated in various parts of the globe.
After spreading around Africa through the Africa Magic Channels of Multichoice, Nigerian movies are beginning to find their way to global platforms like Netflix.
The artists helping this global push are spotlighted in this report by Pulse.com
Nigerian actress, Amanda Ebeye, recently visited Canada where she went to shoot her first movie, a short film titled, “Horrors”.
The movie marked her directorial debut and is centred on single mothers.
On her experience while filming in Canada, Ebeye said,
“It was actually amazing filming a movie in Canada. Canadians are about the nicest people in the world. And just like Nigerians, they are very welcoming to filmmakers.”
“It was a beautiful experience, from the owners of the locations we used, to the cast and crew, and onlookers that cheered us on.”
Continue reading “Nigerian actress, Amanda Ebeye, shoots directorial debut in Canada”
By Mildred Europa Taylor
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Oscar-nominated actor, Djimon Hounsou, will kickstart shooting the much-anticipated biopic ‘Panzi’ this summer.
The Beninese-American actor and model who is best known for his Oscar-nominated performance in “Blood Diamond,” is set to portray the role of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Denis Mukwege, in the film “Panzi”.
The film will be directed by actress-turned-director Marie-Helene Roux, Variety reports.
Mukwege was jointly awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize with Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad for “their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”
Continue reading “Djimon Hounsou set to play Congolese Nobel Peace Laureate in new film”
When Godwin Jabangwe stood in front of a room full of Hollywood movie executives to pitch his first feature film last November, he knew his idea wasn’t exactly the stuff of a conventional blockbuster.
He wanted to make an animated movie called “Tunga,” he explained, about a young girl who travels to a mythical lost city on a quest to save her village from drought. It would be set in Zimbabwe. Oh right, and it would be a musical.
“Five years ago, with an idea like that, you would have been laughed out of the room,” Mr. Jabangwe says. But his idea immediately caught the ear of a big production company, and last month, after a scrappy bidding war, Jabangwe signed a deal with them. “Tunga” is going to be a Netflix original.
Continue reading “Netflix increases production of African films”
