Today from 3-5pm, the Co-Working Space of Humanities Venture Lab/BuzzHouse will be used for a workshop and panel discussion in the context of the Nollywood Travel Film Festival 2023 entitled 'Nollywood: Exploring Nigeria's Booming Film Industry through Production, Distribution and Tourism'. The panel discussion will feature the Nollywood filmmakers Uzodinma Okpechi, Biodun Stephen, Kunle Afolayan, Kayode Kasum and Zainab Salami, and will be moderated by film scholar-practitioner Emiel Martens (UvA/EUR).
Registering for this event is possible (for free) via https://bit.ly/ntff2023-nollywood-workshop.
Over the past three decades, Nigeria's film industry has become a global powerhouse releasing hundreds of films each year. Nollywood, a portmanteau of Nigeria and Hollywood as well as Bollywood, has come to mark the plenitude of filmmaking happening in Lagos from the early 1990s onwards. Following the success of the 1992 straight-to-VHS film Living in Bondage by director Chris Obi Rapu, the Nigerian film industry experienced a popular home video boom that gained an huge following in Nigeria, across Africa, and among the global African diaspora. In fact, Nollywood is nowadays considered the world’s second-largest film industry, and even the largest in terms of output and popularity. Producing about 2,500 films annually and reaching an estimated audience of over 200 million people worldwide, Nollywood has not only seemingly surpassed Hollywood but also Bollywood with regards to production and consumption size. In addition, due to its commercial success and cultural impact, in recent years Nollywood has often been heralded as a potential rising star in Nigeria and Africa’s tourism industry.
In this workshop, part of the Amsterdam edition of the Nollywood Travel Film Festival that is being held in Amsterdam from October 5-7, film scholar-practitioner Emiel Martens will enter into a conversation with five seasoned Nollywood filmmakers: Uzodinma Okpechi, Biodun Stephen, Kunle Afolayan, Kayode Kasum and Zainab Salami. Together, they will explore Nigeria's booming film industry and discuss Nollywood's unique production practices, distribution circuits and tourism potentials. The workshop will be held on Friday, October 6, from 3-5pm in BuzzHouse/Humanities Venture Lab at the University of Amsterdam (Oudemanhuispoort 4-6).
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From October 5-7, 2023, Nollywood Travel Film Festival, presented by Everything Nollywood sponsored by Pan-African Film Development & Advancement Foundation, in collaboration with the Embassy of Nigeria in The Netherlands, Africadelic and other partners, will hosts its next edition in Amsterdam, with Melkweg Cinema as its main base. During these three days, the festival will screen 6 films made by Nollywood, Nigeria’s booming film industry. The festival’s opening film on Thursday, October 5, will be 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲, 𝗟𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 and the closing film on Saturday, October 7, will be 𝗘𝗮𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀. In addition, the festival will include a celebrity hangout (meet&greet), networking reception, diplomatic event, awards gala, afterparty and thus this workshop.
The Nollywood Travel Film Festival (NTFF) represents a unique vision that is strategically geared towards promoting films by Nigerians living across the globe to new and existing global audiences to create new marketplaces for Nigerian cinema. Over the last seven years, the NTFF has been held in cities such as Toronto, Atlanta, Hamburg, Athens, London, Berlin, Glasgow, Helsinki, Oslo, and Dublin. After the success of the festival in Athens last year, the Dutch city of Amsterdam (as well as the city of The Hague) are set to host Africa's most significant and foremost travel film festival in 2023. From Thursday October 5 until Saturday October 7 the festival will screen Nigerian films to the Dutch audience.
The festival will screen five feature films and ten short films for three days at Melkweg Cinema. The opening film is Love, Lust & Other Things directed by Kayode Kasum. There is also the award-winning film Kamsi directed by Uzodinma Okpechi, Obara'm by Kayode Kasum, and Sista by Biodun Stephen. The closing film will be Eagle Wings by Papel Paul Apel. More details about the Film Screening can be found on www.melkweg.nl and www.africadelic.com.
The founder of the Nollywood Travel Film Festival, Mykel Parish, is very pleased to host the festival in Amsterdam this year: “I am excited that we are hosting NTFF in the Netherlands. Amsterdam is one of the most vibrant cities in the world, with beautiful entertainment and lifestyle. There are a lot of opportunities for our delegates and we hope to build a good relationship with the film industry.” Eniola Ajayi, Nigeria’s Ambassador to The Netherlands also shared her enthusiasm about NTFF: “We are looking forward to the Nollywood Travel film festival in the Netherlands. It is always an honour, great privilege, and source of pride for us to participate in any program that showcases our culture, creativity, and diversity at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria."
The Amsterdam edition of NTFF is organised in partnership with Amsterdam-based non-profit organisation Africadelic and the Embassy of Nigeria in The Netherlands. The Nigerian Embassy in The Netherlands will host the creative industry delegates on October 7 at the ambassador’s residence before their departure to Nigeria. Other partners are United Nigeria Platform Netherlands, Nigerian Youths Netherlands, Melkweg Cinema, Buzz House University of Amsterdam, Naija TV, Media Entertainers Netherlands, Gomes Media Group, Anyevent, Suny Richy Tech Movies, Directors Guild of Nigeria, Budetee Afro Hour Radio, Actors Guild of Nigeria, African Film Forum and the Association of Movie Producers, with support from the Nigerian Film Corporation. The festival is sponsored by the Pan-African Film Development and Advancement Foundation.
