Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman, Anikulapo and the Obsession for Netflix in Nollywood
Planning is everything and everything is planning in achieving our goals in our occupations and professions.
Nobody is too big, too high or too old to learn.
The films, ‘Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman" by Biyi Bandele and "Anikulapo" by Kunle Afolayan should have been in the Official Selections of the Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in competition with the best new films by other filmmakers in the world.
Both of them were produced for Netflix and the producers were fixated on seeing them in competition for the global Top 10 movies on Netflix.
The obsession of Nigerian filmmakers for Netflix deserves to be studied by psychologists.
Being on Netflix has become a status symbol for bragging rights by local filmmakers in Nollywood and their second obsession and status symbol is Amazon Prime Video SVOD.
To them being on either Netflix or Amazon Prime Video SVOD is like winning an Oscar at the annual Academy Awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Once they are on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video SVOD, they have arrived, even though they are among the lowest paid filmmakers compared to the American, European, Australian and Asian filmmakers on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video SVOD.
Hundreds of the local filmmakers can stampede over themselves to be on either of the two leading streaming platforms for even US$20, 000. Yeah, they have become so cheap that many of them are giving their new movies to MultiChoice for less than US$1, 000 per movie! In fact, they fast and pray and do night vigils of praise and worship to be accepted by Netflix, Amazon Prime Video SVOD and MultiChoice.
They are doing more harm than good to the international reputation and valuation of Nollywoood and the Nigerian film industry.
If the focus of the producers of "Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman" and "Anikulapo" has been on making the Official Selections of the biggest international film festivals and the Academy Awards, there would not have been any controversial rejection of the films by the Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) for the Best International Feature Film category of the 2023 annual Academy Awards. Their focus on Netflix distracted them from following the road map to the Oscars.
- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima.
The Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOOD MIRROR® Series,
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