In this piece, Exclusive Africa’s contributor, Julliet Gillies discusses that Africa’s film industry has seen positive growth markers within the last few years. She highlights the growth indicators being witnessed in the African film industry one of which the Netflix-UNESCO ‘African Folktales Reimagined’ which saw winners from Mauritania, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.
Key Takeaways:
Africa’s film industry has continued to show progress over the years
An indicator is the 2022 Netflix-UNESCO Netflic-UNESCO ‘African Folktales Reimagined Film Competition.
Only 44% of African countries have an established film commission and only 55% have a policy on films.
The film and audiovisual industry is one of the most dynamic growth sectors in the world with digital technology driving rapid growth.
A month ago, I reported on the 6 winners of the Netflix-UNESCO ‘African Folktales Reimagined’ film
competition – one each from Mauritania, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.
They each get US$250000 plus a production budget of US$750000 to “create short films through a local production company and under the guidance of Netflix-appointed supervising producer and industry mentors from across the continent”.
These will premiere on Netflix in late 2022 as part of its ‘An Anthology of African Folktales’ offering.
This comes after UNESCO released its report on the film industry in Africa in late 2021.
According to UNESCO, this report provides “the first complete mapping of Africa’s film and audiovisual industries”, including recommendations to “help the sector achieve its estimated potential to create over 20 million jobs and contribute US$20 billion” to Africa’s GDP.
According to UNESCO, the industry currently employs some “5 million people and accounts for US$5 billion in GDP”. However, national reforms are needed, as well as with regional and continental approaches, says Ernesto Ottone, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture.
Furthermore, “international cooperation is fundamental in the face of multiple challenges which strain the potential of the film industry in Africa”.
No doubt it was this report that resulted in the launch of the ‘African Folktales Reimagined’ film
competition, which will provide much-needed funding for the industry on the continent, and help
African filmmakers showcase their talent on the worldwide stage via Netflix.
Abderrahmane Sissako, Director of the award-winning film, ‘Timbuktu’ (2014), attended the report launch and said that the report findings “can serve as an engine for the future of African cinema”.
The biggest problem noted in the report is that the sector “remains historically and structurally
underfunded, underdeveloped and undervalued”. In terms of infrastructure, the cinema network in Africa is the least developed in the world, with 1651 screens in total. That equates to 1 screen per 787402 people.
Furthermore, only 44% of African countries have an established film commission and only 55% have a policy on films. However, where regulations do exist, they “are sometimes seen as obstacles rather than enablers”.
Other challenges include: piracy and intellectual property; education and training; internet connectivity; gender equality; freedom of expression.
On the issue of education and training, Aboubakar Sanogo, Executive Secretary of the Fédération panafricaine des cinéastes said, “To move forward, we need to also look back. The memory of African cinema must be available to also train the new generation of filmmakers so they have African filmmakers as models of what cinema can be”.
However, there is much to celebrate and build on, according to the report, including:
The film and audiovisual industry is one of the most dynamic growth sectors in the world. Digital
technologies are driving rapid growth in production in Africa and Nollywood already produces
about 2500 films per year.
Across most of the continent, the economic potential of the sector remains largely untapped.
However, French investments in francophone West Africa, Morocco and Tunisia are expected to
triple the number of screens in the region.
- Several countries show encouraging dynamics in terms of gender, with 30% or more women in front of and behind the camera. These countries include Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
- Nigeria is the “true success story”, with a 200% increase in cinema locations from 2015 to 2020 and the “total number of digital cinema initiative compliant screens reaching 237 in 2020”.
The report includes an assessment of the film industry in each of the 54 countries in Africa. The example of Nigeria is used here, with a few extracts from the Nigerian report provided below.
Production
The African Film industry employs +1 million people across the exhibition, distribution and production sub-sectors, and produces about 50 films a week. It is the second-largest employer of labour, after the agricultural sector.
History: The first feature film was produced in 1926 by Geoffrey Barkas – ‘Palaver’. Acclaimed writer, Wole Soyinka, worked on ‘King’s Harvest’, released in 1970. The reign of straight-to-video arrived in the early 1990s and a home video boom followed. “In 2004, modern cinema returned, with the establishment of Silverbird Cinemas, in Victoria Island, Lagos.”
Filmmakers then had to raise production quality to take their work to the big screen, while storytelling became more ambitious, with 2009’s ‘The Figurine’ widely regarded as “the first ‘New Nollywood’ film, and marking a turning point in the creative development of the industry.”
Since then, Nollywood films have thrived in Nigeria and there has been improved funding from government and corporates.
In 2016, ‘The Wedding Party’ surpassed all records, to gross US$1.5 million. The first Nigerian TV series were produced in the 1980s and 1990s, while music videos are very popular on television.
International recognition: Nollywood films are now being seen on Netflix, with ‘Oloture’ and ‘Citation’ being screened in 2020. They are also increasingly being seen at film festivals, including in Berlin,Toronto, Durban and London. And awards are being won.
There is also a long list of Nigerian actors achieving success elsewhere in the world, including David Oyelowo, John Boyega, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Hakeen Kae-Kazim.
Funding
The industry has grown independently since the 1980s, based on the commercial model, and productions are often “self-funded by the filmmakers themselves”. The Creative Industry intervention fund was created by the government in 2012, with US$200 available for film-related projects and businesses.
This enabled Filmhouse Cinemas to grow from a three-screen operation in 2012 to 58 screens in 2020. In 2019, the Creative Industry Finance Initiative was launched, which provides loans for up to ten years at a maximum of 9% interest, with a maximum of US$183.3k and US$13m for production and distribution companies.
International funding has also been provided by the World Cinema Fund and various NGOS. Grants can also be sourced from Slamdance Screenplay Competition, One World
Media, Art, Movies Africa, and many more.
