Vanessa Obioha
A common comment passed by cinema exhibitors in Nigeria at conferences and webinars is that the Nigerian audience favours more comedy flicks than any other genre. The box office figures do not suggest otherwise. The first highest grossing Nigerian film in the past decade was the 2016 comedy film ‘The Wedding Party. It was recently displaced by Funke Akindele and JJC Skillz film, ‘Omo Ghetto (The Saga)’. In the list of the top 10 highest-grossing films in Nigeria, only ‘King of Boys’ is outside the comedy box, thereby giving weight to the assertion. The flip side is that many filmmakers now stick to the comedy genre, against their better judgment.
There are few filmmakers though who would rather explore other genres and privately screen their films than having a wide theatrical release. Those who still pursue a big-screen debut, however, pray fervently that their films will challenge the norm.
For instance, before the release of ‘La Femme Anjola’, the director Mildred Okwo urged Nigerians to watch the film and prove that notion wrong.
At a recent webinar organised by the Nollywood Studies Centre of the School of Media and Communications, Pan Atlantic University, prolific filmmaker Femi Odugbemi tackled the assertion. The producer of the new documentary ‘Unmasked: Leadership Trust and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria’ that debuted at the recently concluded iREP International Documentary Film Festival, found the perception awkward.
“It’s like we are underestimating how much the audience is educated. It’s like we think the audience is in a bubble.”
He queried why there is no blockade on other genres from Hollywood if comedy was the standard.
Odugbemi argued that the Nigerian audience film viewing options are increasing every day with more streaming platforms showing Nigerian and international films.
“When people make such assertions, they insinuate and obliterate the audience.”
The effect of that assumption is also felt on the actors whom he said are often insulted by such scripts that lack artistry and focus on commercial viability, pointing out that most comedy films are a clutch of incongruous scenes.
“Comedy is the hardest thing to do and because humour is relative to one’s culture, it does not evoke the same emotions for everyone.”
One of the reasons why such assumption thrives according to the filmmaker is because “we are running a multibillion structure without data. The filmmaker shouldn’t be telling me what the film made, it should be an independent body giving that information.”
While not writing off the genre, Odugbemi emphasized that it is superiorly rare for a Nollywood film to win the best picture in the Academy Awards which is one of the top goals of Nollywood. ‘The Milkmaid’ became the first Nigerian film to make the Oscars longlist but failed to clinch a spot in the nomination list.
The way forward, according to the Academy Awards voting member, is to bring artistry to our films and that can only be achieved through education.
“We have to tell the story of our time and if a story is well told, it makes money.”
Education, he said, has been neglected in the film industry, thereby damaging the future of the film industry we want. A paradigm shift, he noted, is needed to empower filmmakers not only to make money out of their films but also to make them meaningful.
