Female Filmmakers Driving Nollywood To New Heights

Nollywood, adjudged the second fastest-growing movie industry in the world with a net worth of $6.4 billion, has reached new heights of success, partly due to the immense contributions of female filmmakers who have also earned themselves widespread recognition as some of the film industry’s biggest influencers. IVORY UKONU writes on these women and how they have impacted the industry.

Jade Osiberu

The 37-year-old filmmaker and founder of Greoh Studios, is one of Nollywood’s highly respected film producers. With a portfolio spanning a wide spectrum of genres, from romantic comedies such as ‘Isoken’ and ‘Sugar Rush’ to blockbusters like ‘Brotherhood’ and ‘Gangs of Lagos,’ the first Nigerian original film streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, Jade Osiberu has etched her name indelibly in the annals of the industry.

Osiberu’s partnership with Amazon Prime saw her signing a three-year deal to develop and produce original scripted television series and feature films. Her directorial debut, in ‘Isoken,’ catapulted her to stardom, introducing and cementing her filmmaking abilities.

Also, Osiberu’s film ventures continue to make sizeable imprints on the Nigerian Box Office, thereby underscoring her craftsmanship and capability. Her films have sold millions of Naira, with ‘Gangs of Lagos’ winning the best movie in West Africa at the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA) in May 2023.

Formerly a software developer before switching careers, she was born into a royal family. Her father, Oba Adewale Osiberu is the Elepe of Epe-Sagamu.

Kemi Adetiba

Kemi Adetiba’s achievement in Nollywood comes a long way. She started out as a music video producer/director, showcasing her talent behind the camera by directing music videos for some of Nigeria’s prominent music acts, such as Tiwa Savage, Olamide,and Waje, before transitioning to the big screen as an acclaimed filmmaker in Nollywood.

She has carved her niche for herself in Nollywood showcasing some of the best works ever witnessed in the industry, from her directorial debut in 2008 with the movie ‘Across a Bloodied Ocean’, to her breakthrough film in Nollywood in 2016 with the success of ‘The Wedding Party,’ a romantic comedy. She followed this up with another Nollywood success, ‘King of Boys’, which brought her a new partnership with the global film streaming platform, Netflix. The result of this partnership was the release of the seven-part mini-series, ‘King of Boys 2’.

A law graduate, Kemi’s parents are the indefatigable Mayen Adetiba, the first woman to be elected to the executive committee of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and Dele Adetiba, a veteran broadcaster and iconic sports commentator.

Mosunmola Abudu

Ever since Mosunmola Abudu, also known as Mo’, dumped her career in Human Resources at Mobil Nigeria and ventured into filmmaking, she has turned herself into a reputable film maker and a big player in Nollywood. Her magic wand produced top-notch movies, such as ‘The Wedding Party,’ ‘Fifty,’ ‘The Royal Hotel Hibiscus’ and ‘Chief Daddy’ via her EbonyLife Films.

Abudu was also responsible for some TV series that include ‘The Governor,’ ‘Desperate Housewives Africa,’ ‘Sons of the Caliphate,’ and ‘Fifty the Series.’ In 2018, she signed a deal with Sony Pictures Television (SPT) for a three-year deal to produce ‘The Dahomey Warriors’, a series about the Amazons who took on French colonialists in a 19th-century west African kingdom. In 2020, she also signed a partnership deal with AMC Networks to produce ‘Nigeria 2099,’ an afro futuristic crime-drama. In the same year, she also signed a new partnership with Netflix. The streaming giant acquired some of EbonyLife’s drama serie, the success of which led to another deal with her to create two original series and multiple Netflix-branded films.

That Mo has made significant impact in the industry is evident in her mention in ‘The Hollywood Reporter’s’ annual list of the ‘25 Most Powerful Women in Global Television.’ She has also earned herself an appointment as one of the academy directors for the prestigious Emmys.

She was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by Babcock University in recognition of her contributions to the broadcasting industry in Nigeria.

Biola Alabi

Biola Alabi is notable for spearheading the birth of one of Africa’s biggest movie awards, Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards, AMVCA while she worked with Multichoice Nigeria as its managing director. After her exit from the cable TV company, Alabi began to work on her production house, Biola Alabi Media. The company delved into movie production and today, it is a major player in the Nigerian film industry with the production of ‘Banana Island Ghost’ and ‘Lara and the beat,’ as well as the television show, ‘Bukas and Joint’ which was widely received.

Biola Alabi Media has made an impactful contribution to Nollywood. Alabi went a step further to host a TV show on Arise Network. She has been the anchor of the TV station’s coverage of the Academy Awards, the Oscars, since 2017. A recipient of Yale World Fellows, she was named in the list of top 100 global female executives published in the 2018 edition of Financial Times.

Tope Oshin

Tope Oshin started out as an actress and for 12 years, appeared in a variety of films before veering into directing, working as an associate producer and assistant director for ‘The Apprentice Africa’ from where she honed her skills, producing some of the highest box office breaking movies in Nigeria. She was the only female director on M-Net’s hit soap opera ‘Tinsel’ in its first five seasons. She shot about 350 episodes of the drama series. She also produced and directed several acclaimed movies, such as ‘Fifty,’ ‘Journey to Self’ and ‘In Line,’ among others.

Oshin is also known for directing series, such as ‘Hush,’ ‘Hotel Majestic,’ and ‘Shuga’ (Season 3 and 6). Her oeuvre as a director includes several short films like ‘The Young Smoker’, ‘Till Death Do Us Part’ and ‘New Horizons.’ In 2016, she directed the documentary, ‘Amaka’s Kin: The Women of Nollywood,’ a memorial to influential filmmaker, Amaka Igwe, who died in 2014, and had before her death, paved the way for many female filmmakers.

Oshin has a thriving career as a casting director and she has worked on several film and television projects. Her company, Sunbow Productions, was commissioned to produce Season 8 of MTV Shuga, a television series and is credited as the series’ head director, showrunner, executive producer and producer after directing and casting Season 6 of the show in 2017. She also once served as a juror for the International Emmy Award.

Mildred Okwo

Mildred Okwo is a respected film director and producer whose films have been nominated and won several prestigious awards, including the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Award, AMVCA; Africa Movie Academy Awards, AMAA; Nollywood Movie Awards, NMA and Publix du Prix at Nollywood Paris.

A former Los Angeles-based litigation lawyer, she is the brain behind The Audrey Silva Company, a movie production company that he co-owns with actress Rita Dominic. A Theatre Arts graduate from the University of Benin, Edo State, Okwo has stamped her feet in Nollywood with movies such as ‘The Meeting,’ ‘La Femme Anjola,’ ’30 Days’ and ‘Suru-Lere.’ In 2016, she was named as one of ’50 Women Shaping Africa’ by Elle Magazine.

Bolanle Austen-Peters

Besides running renowned arts and cultural organisation, Terra Culture, Bolanle Austen-Peters also uses movies as an outlet to express her love for the arts and entertainment. She made her debut as a film producer with ’93 Days,’ a movie showing how the deadly Ebola virus was contained in Lagos. She also produced critically acclaimed musicals such as ‘Saro the Musical,’ ‘Wakaa!’ and ‘Fela and the Kalakuta Queens’ and ‘Man Enough.’

She would later take it a notch higher when in 2018, she shot her second feature film, ‘The Bling Lagosians.’ She has gone on to shoot other titles, such as ‘Collision Course’ and ‘Man of God.’

A lawyer by training, who had previously worked with the United Nations, she is the daughter of Chief Afe Babalola, SAN and the founder of Terra Academy for the Arts in partnership with Mastercard Foundation, empowering young people.

Biodun Stephen

A trained lawyer, Biodun Stephen would later venture into broadcasting before finally settling for filmmaking. She made out time to study filmmaking and scriptwriting at the London Film Academy. Upon her return to Nigeria, she immersed herself in the task of making a difference in Nollywood and partnered with Koga Entertainment to make the movie, ‘The Visit,’ which went on to open doors for her.

Working with several individuals, Stephen made headlines again with the interesting drama series, ‘Picture Perfect’ in 2017. In 2018, she joined Tope Oshin as one of the female filmmakers working with M-Net and Multichoice Nigeria to create content for Africa Magic. She has gone on to do other movies, such as ‘Joba,’ ‘Tiwa’s Baggage,’ ‘Ovy’s Voice,’ ‘Ehi’s Bitters’ ‘Breaded Life,’ and ‘Sobi’s Mystic’ etc.

Funke Akindele

A skilled actress whose forte is comedy-drama, Funke Akindele combines producing and directing with her craft. She made her debut as a producer in the comic movie, ‘Jenifa’, in which she also acted the lead role. She would later produce a series based on the movie titled ‘Jenifa’s Diary.’

Akindele went on to produce other series, such as ‘My Siblings And I,’ ‘Far From Home,’ ‘Industreet.’ She has equally produced blockbusters like ‘Omo Ghetto’, ‘Battle on Buka Street,’ and ‘Omo Ghetto: The Saga.’ The latter has been announced as the highest-grossing movie of all time in Nigeria. The movie grossed N468,036,300 after maintaining its number one spot for three consecutive weeks.

Combined with her deal to license ‘Omo Ghetto: The Saga’ to Netflix, Akindele struck gold. A former deputy governorship candidate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the last general election, she made her directorial debut in the movie, ‘Your Excellency,’ produced by Mo Abudu.

Nwakaego Boyo

An actress, Ego Boyo became popular for her role as Anne Haastrup in the early 1990s soap, ‘Checkmate.’ She has since moved on to film production, producing her own movie via Temple Productions, Temple films and Temple Studio companies.

The former President of the International Women’s Society (IWS) has produced films like ‘A Hotel Called Memory’ and ‘The Ghost and the house of truth.’ Her husband is Omamofe Boyo, the Deputy Group Chief Executive of the Oando energy company.

Mary Nnenna Njoku

Mary Nnenna Njoku, also known as Mary Remmy or Mary Remmy Njoku, started out as a little unknown actress before blossoming to become a film producer, and director-general of Lagos-based film house, ROK Studios, in Nigeria, which was later acquired by French TV giant, CANAL+ [1]. They however retained her as the managing director, giving her maximum autonomy and creative freedom.

Not only is Mary responsible for the rise of several actors who utilised her platform, at the time ROK Studios was acquired she had produced 540 movies and 25 original TV drama series, including ‘Thy Will be Done,’ ‘Husbands of Lagos.’ In August 2013, alongside her business partners Jason Njoku, her husband and Bastian Gotter, Mary launched a $2 million investment vehicle for Lagos-based Internet start-ups called Spark.

Ruth Kadiri

Ruth Kadiri made her debut in Nollywood as an actress, but she has gone on to become a screenwriter and film producer.

Kadiri, who prefers to work behind the scenes, has several movies under her belt which she has either produced or scripted. Also, some of her movies are streamed on ROK TV and she gives the platform credit for providing the much-needed support to producers and actors.

Toyin Abraham

Tony Abraham, actress and producer who has made a name for herself in the film industry since 2003, is best known for her acclaimed roles in ‘Alani Baba Labake’ and ‘Ebimi ni’. Toyin also starred in the popular movie, ‘Black Val’. She produced movies like ‘Fate of Alakada’ which she sold to Netflix. The movie adds to her list of impressive achievements. She has gone on to produce ‘Fate of Alakada 2’ and ‘Ijakumo: The Born-Again Stripper,’ also on Netflix.

Omoni Oboli

The multilingual award-winning actress, scriptwriter, director and producer joins this list of female filmmakers shattering the glass ceiling. A trained digital filmmaker and alumnus of the New York Film Academy, Oboli has to her credit several intriguing screenplays, including ‘Fatal Imagination’, ‘Being Mrs Elliott’, ‘The First Lady,’ ‘The Rivals,’ ‘Wives on Strike’ and ‘Moms at War’ where she made her directorial debut.

She also wrote the screenplay of some chartbusting movies, such as ‘The Figurine’ and ‘Anchor Baby’.

Recounting why she started making her own movies, Oboli said that after enjoying a brief career in the movie industry, she left to complete her university education, married immediately after graduation and did not return to the industry until a decade later, an act she said almost made her quit the movie industry.

When she got back to the screen in 2009, she realised that the film industry had no space for her anymore. This was when she decided to start the production of her own movies.

Oboli is the first Nollywood actress to win in the Best Actress category in two international film festivals, not organised by Africans, in the same year (2010) – the Harlem International Film Festival and the Los Angeles Movie Awards for her lead role in the movie ‘Anchor Baby.’

Yemisi Wada

A lawyer and activist, Yemisi Wada got into film production when she produced ‘Oluranlowo Mi’ (My Benefactor), a drama/documentary about the lives of some children who found themselves living on the streets. She had just founded ‘Haven for the Nigerian Child Foundation’ a charity orgnisation working with street children. She went on to produce ‘Lasgidi Cop’ which she licensed to DSTV for three years and then to some other stations like Africa Independent Television, AIT, etc.

She also produced a web series titled ‘The Witches,’ about a group of female friends living the cosmopolitan lifestyle in a city like Lagos with all of its hang ups.

Wada is currently in a partnership with a French production company interested in her turning ‘Lasgidi Cop’ into a series to be titled ‘Lasgidi Cop: Special Crime Series.’ The production will be fully funded by the company and handled by both parties . This is in addition to a Yoruba epic series which she is also working on.