Tech builders in Nollywood are trying to solve the industry’s production and distribution problems

Nollywood is the second largest movie trade in the world and contributes 2.3% to Nigeria’s GDP, and now filmmakers are creating startups to develop area of interest options for the trade.

Last yr, Nollywood, Nigeria’s movie trade, made 1,923 motion pictures, in accordance to the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB). That made Nollywood the second most prolific film trade after Bollywood and earlier than Hollywood, but Nollywood struggles with field workplace income. In 2022, Hollywood made $7.37 billion, whereas Bollywood made $1.28 billion. The distinction is evident when positioned beside the $203 million Nollywood made in the similar yr.

Chart by Muktar Oladunmade, TechCabal

Quite a lot of points may be blamed for this disparity. There are not sufficient cinema screens in the nation; the shopper market is dwindling; there’s a lack of high quality management and avenues for suggestions; there’s a lack of affected person funding; and creatives lack entry. However, some filmmakers are taking issues into their very own arms, utilizing expertise to solve a few of these points. 

At The Annual Film Mischief (TAFM’23) FilmTech Conference, a gathering of expertise fans in Nollywood, you’d be forgiven in case you thought it was not a gathering of creatives. Armed with pitch decks, shows, and stories, film trade fans showcased how their startups use expertise to solve essential problems in the Nigerian movie trade. Ojie Imoloame, the convention’s convener, informed TechCabal that the convention was designed to showcase “the overwhelming opportunity in the film and creative space overall using technology”.

Seun Afolabi, a Yoruba movie director at the FilmTech convention, shared that he attended the convention to learn the way to use expertise to enhance his craft. “Most of the Yoruba movies you see are done in four days, but I want my movies to stand out. The world is smaller now; Spielberg (an American filmmaker) can load up Amazon Prime and watch Nigerian movies. I want him to see my movies and be impressed.” 

Imoloame added that the convention additionally sought to carry like-minded creatives collectively to talk about how to advance Nollywood. “We were lucky to assemble virtually all the filmtech startups for a deep-dive conversation into startup building in this space,” he shared.   

One of the startups current at the FilmTech convention was Albantsho, a web-based screenwriting discovery platform that makes use of scriptwriting software program and a narrative market to assist screenwriters create and promote their scripts. Julie Ako, Albantsho’s cofounder, informed TechCabal {that a} lack of avenues for her as a screenwriter to promote her scripts led to her beginning Albantsho along with her cofounder, Nikita Mokgware. 

“Albantsho stems from my experiences as a screenwriter and filmmaker and the realisation that there were limited avenues for selling our scripts. This challenge wasn’t unique to us; many screenwriters and film creatives across Africa faced similar struggles,” she mentioned. Albantsho additionally connects screenwriters collectively. “We often operate in silos, which hinders collaboration and growth,” Ako added.                

When requested what the proudest second she skilled along with her startup was, she informed TechCabal that after launching a check model of the Albantsho platform, the startup introduced 20 writers and movie producers collectively for a programme final yr and bought 10 scripts developed via the programme. 

For Chidinma Igbokweuche, a cofounder at Nollydata, a first-of-its-kind database for Nollywood motion pictures, forged, and crew, her startup resulted from necessity. She informed TechCabal that her filmmaking course of was hindered by a scarcity of entry to data as a author, director, and producer. “When I wanted to make my first short film, finding information about the industry, the right cast, and their contact information was difficult. So I partnered with one of my cofounders, Ibrahim Suleiman [an actor], to solve this problem from different angles (behind and in front of the camera) with Nollydata.” 

Nollydata, styled after IMDb (a web-based film database), can also be constructing a neighborhood the place filmmakers can work together with audiences and get real-time suggestions, in accordance to Igbokweuche. But issues haven’t all the time been rosy. For her and Ako of Albantsho, funding has been a major roadblock.

Victoria Popoola, co-founder and CEO of TalentX Africa, a film-financing market, informed TechCabal that conventional financing establishments usually demand collateral exceeding 120% of the movie finances, making funding inaccessible for many trade members. “Our survey in 2021 revealed that over 70% of creatives rely on self-funding or support from family and friends,” she added. 

Popoola says TalentX has invested over ₦400 million in Nollywood inside two years. Some of the initiatives they’ve funded embody Ba Ni [Mud Clan], produced by Anita Abada, which acquired a number of nominations at the 2022 AMAA Awards and received Best Feature Film at the Nollywood Week Film Festival in Paris. However, inside that interval, she shared that TalentX’s greatest problems have been associated to information and distribution infrastructure. 

“We have problems finding accurate and reliable data about the industry, making it difficult to make informed investment decisions, measure the success and impact of films, assess profitability, or make data-driven improvements,” she mentioned. To treatment this, TalentX has  “started gathering our data and leveraging our team’s industry expertise to build our early structures”. 

Distribution has sometimes been a Nollywood drawback. Compared to the United States, which has over 40,000 cinema screens, Nigeria solely has 275. As an answer, Popoola informed TechCabal that TalentX is “building out an in-house distribution network that we have now leveraged for some of our funded projects”. 

Imoloame informed TechCabal that he believes expertise can be utilized to solve Nollywood’s problems and “solve them at scale”. 

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