Nollywood

Oh, wow.

You do better Nollywood stuff, movies out there on YouTube and Netflix.

Yeah.

I mean, it's great.

Nollywood's come a long way, so it has a long way to go.

Yeah.

um i just like a challenge like i don't want to be i feel like especially after sugar i kept getting called for the same kind of roles and i didn't want to get boxed into doing playing on a shower and i want to do different things so i'm going to shower today let me be a pastor tomorrow let me be a some pilot the next day yeah like i want to be diverse and i feel like with nollywood it's very easy to get boxed in so i'm doing i've done stuff in the uk as well so i'm you know

need to do

And then a couple of points tonight.

So I'm sure we'll come back to in the Nollywood sketch, the buttons there, but the twist where firstly it was Cher and then secondly, it was a horror film as well.

um and I personally I think I did like that I found it quite silly but I was curious John whether the double twist worked for you or whether you felt it's too much

I felt like this twist in this sketch were fine.

totally agree yeah

yeah

So we're heading into one where I'm going to agree even more, John, to be honest, about the double, triple, quadruple, gajillion twisting, which is the Nollywood cinema.

So for people who might not know, Nollywood, like Nigerian Hollywood, so it's Nigerian cinema, that is a big Nigerian community in London, and Ayoade is Nigerian herself, half Nigerian, I think, I'm not sure, but she certainly grew up in Lagos.

It's really good storytelling.

And I think it just gives like a different perspective than, you know, how Nollywood typically handles these stories.

It's more modern and it's like very rooted in like relatable stories.

Yes, yes.

But after streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime moved away from funding films up front, producers are now finding new ways to get in front of international audiences.

On today's Next Africa podcast, we'll look at how Nollywood has fared without streamer funding and how diaspora projects in the U.S. and Europe could help the industry go

global.

I'm Jennifer Zabasajja, and this is the Next Africa podcast, bringing you one story each week from the continent, driving the future of global growth with the context only Bloomberg can provide.

That is Mo Abudu.

She is the founder and CEO of Ebony Life Group, and she's produced films including The Wedding Party and Blood Sisters.

She's now, amongst many other things that she's doing, behind a new cinema cultural center in London, hoping to put Nollywood in the spotlight even more so.

But first, to put the industry in context, let's speak to Anthony Osei-Browne.

Now we do media, we do food, we do movies.

You know, we're the first set of people that started marketing Hollywood films in the UK cinemas.

And that was from like 2007, 19 years today.

Think of all the biggest titles.

We kind of like brought them here and showcase them.

So what we did different was just create an environment where people come out to the red carpet, you know, have after parties, added the bus to it.

And that made London today, outside of Nigeria, the primary spot today for Nollywood exhibition.

And yeah, I think in a nutshell.