I am delighted to announce that BEYOND NOLLYWOOD will release OVER THE BRIDGE (Dir: Tolulope Ajayi Nigeria/2023) in conjunction with Picturehouse cinemas across multiple cinemas on Wednesday 18 October 2023. Brixton Ritzy Screening + Q&A and wider UK Venue listings

BEYOND NOLLYWOOD is a term I coined to describe new wave audio-visual content from Nigeria such as short films, art house, animation, documentary, experimental and music videos. The term takes inspiration from my book The Nigerian Filmmaker’s Guide to Success: Beyond Nollywood (2014).

While Nollywood is largely accepted as a carte blanche description of the Nigerian film industry it does not adequately describe all of the film content coming out of Nigeria. A growing number of filmmakers have emerged in the Nigerian film space creating work distinct from Nollywood. The content they are making is dynamic and poised to supersede Nollywood.

This has created opening for the emergence of BEYOND NOLLYWOOD as a description for a new class of content creator.

This trend is being driven by demographics with Nigeria’s youth population quoted as up to 65% of its estimated 223 million people. In recent years we have seen a West African cultural explosion with Afrobeats, ankara inspired fashions and indigenous art crossing over.

BEYOND NOLLYWOOD is made up of a collective of filmmakers who are either Nigerian, from the Nigerian diaspora or are non-Nigerian but making work that relates to Nigerian/West African culture.

BEYOND NOLLYWOOD has been showcased at Film Fest Dresden (2023), Film Africa (2020, 2022), Brazilian African Film Festival (2020), London Short Film Festival (2020) Berlin  International Film Festival Africa Hub (2019), University Arts London (2019), ENCOUNTERS Short Film and Animation Festival (2018), International Film Festival of Rotterdam (2018) and the British Film Institute (2014, 2016, 2018).

BEYOND NOLLYWOOD aims to enrich world cinema, increase international industry and  audience awareness of independent filmmakers working in the West African film space and
support the development of a thriving Nigerian film culture.

If you are enthused by world cinema, independent filmmaking and African culture – BEYOND NOLLYWOOD is for you!