This year, Nollywood has welcomed crime thrillers, high school dramas, animated features and epic movies.
While many movies have done great, our epic stories have stood out on streaming platforms and in Nigerian cinemas. From the highest opening gross records to competing strongly with other industry movies, indigenous films have had high wins that can't be ignored.
This year, the Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) will make deliberations and selections for the International Feature Film (IFF) category for the 96th Oscars. The IFF category is for feature films containing 50% or more of a language or languages other than English.
With NOSC's recent call for submissions, we have put together a list of three films that stand a chance of getting selected to represent Nigeria at the prestigious award. They are:
Mami Wata
C.J. 'Fiery' Obasi's Mami Wata tells the story of a remote village in West Africa where the villagers worship the mermaid deity with an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata.
Mami Wata, shot entirely in Benin, West Africa, is told in Pidgin dialogue, which is what the former NOSC chairperson, Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi, fought to be included. The feature film hits the Nigerian cinemas on September 8, 2023.
Watch the trailer:
Jagun Jagun
Jagun Jagun is a feature-length film produced by Femi Adebayo Salami. Told primarily in the Yoruba language, it is an epic story of a warlord who finds himself threatened by a young warrior.
It brought back stories of happenings around the Yoruba empire during the colonial period. Many may argue on the importance or unimportance of the story it told, but the fact that Jagun Jagun beautifully used a traditional story to address a current menace in the modern world with the Yoruba dialogue purely is one that should be applauded.
Directed by Adebayo Tijani and Tope Adebayo Salami, Jagun Jagun's production shoot was described as the largest set in Nigeria with a one-month-long shoot in the Southwest location of the country. It was released on August 10, 2023, on Netflix.
Here is the trailer:
Orisa
Orisa is also an epic told mostly in Yoruba. It tells the story of a deity named Orisa who is a powerful warrior but allies himself with a gang of highly skilled warriors.
Shot in a Southwest location in the country, the movie stole the hearts of many cinema and epic lovers even with other theatrical rivals at its release. The record-breaking gross of over 100 million in the year 2023 so far has had quite an interesting theatrical run, right from its opening weekend. It might just be able to win the hearts of many others if it proceeds to the IFF category.
Watch the trailer:
It's an exciting time for the Nollywood industry and everyone's ears and eyes are on ground to see what film eventually gets selected for the Oscars.