As director and head of the Ghana Film Agency, Juliet Yaa Asadewa Asade said she always had the same feeling when she attended international industry events: African cinema had so much more to offer.
The CEO of the Ghana National Film Authority, Asante joined forces with Nigerian and other African filmmakers and distributors this week in the Ghanaian capital to discuss how the continent’s industry can do just that.
Africa’s film and audiovisual businesses generate about $5 billion a year but could potentially reach $20 billion and create 20 million jobs, according to the UN cultural agency UNESCO citing a pan-African federation of filmmakers.
The continent with the youngest population also has fewer than 1,700 cinemas. That compares with about 44,000 in the United States and 75,500 in China.
Even with the recent success of African films on streaming platforms such as Netflix, the continent’s potential remains largely untapped, the UNESCO report says.
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“There are sunspots or spotlights happening on the continent,” Asante told AFP in an interview.
“But if you look at the potential of the continent, what’s actually happening doesn’t even scratch the surface, so we started to wonder why?”
Asante, who directed the Ghanaian film “Silver Rain”, met this week for the first Africa Cinema Summit with cinema leaders such as Nigeria’s FilmOne Group, Ghana’s Silverbird Cinema and international industry representatives.
Among the topics discussed were new technologies to improve content quality, marketing in the digital age, better policy making for the industry and Africa’s impact on the world cinema narrative.
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“We’re very much spectators to stories happening all over the place,” Asante said. “We know we have so many stories in our backyards that haven’t been told.”
On the continent, Nigeria’s Nollywood industry is a leader with about 2,500 films produced annually, second only to India’s film giant Bollywood.
But even in Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation, there is more to be done, Asante said.
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African countries face different challenges from lack of funding, poor investment in studios and cinemas to some governments only now seeing the potential of the industry to create jobs.
The UNESCO report notes that only 44 percent of Africa has a national film commission and just over half of the continent has established film policies.
“If governments are able to approve tax incentives, then the private sector will also feel encouraged to invest,” Asante said.
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However, the positive developments for African cinema are many.
The Nigerian crime thriller film “The Black Book” became a global hit on Netflix soon after its release this year.
“This is still so surreal. More South Koreans watched Black Book than Nigerians,” the film’s director Editi Effiong wrote on X, formerly Twitter, reflecting on its global success.
The Lagos State Government is building a Hollywood-style film and studio city in Lagos to help boost the Nollywood and entertainment industry.
Ghana is promoting itself as a filming location with its “Shoot in Ghana” campaign, with British actor Idris Elba recently visiting the country where he said he will shoot some of his next film, local media reported.
“Those who lose are not only Africans, it is the global community, because the global community will be more enriched by the African stories being played out,” Asante said. “We’ve seen that there is definitely a place for African stories told with the right quality.”