African film industry woos investors in Lagos

Detailed summary

Filmmakers and investors met in Lagos for the African Producers Accelerator and African Film Investor Roundtable to explore funding and cross-border collab Read More:…

Filmmakers and investors from across Africa have explored funding opportunities and cross-border collaborations at the Lagos editions of the African Producers Accelerator and African Film Investor Roundtable.

The initiatives were held in partnership with Creative Africa Nexus during CANEX WKND on November 12, 2026.

Co-hosted by South African production company Big World Cinema and creative economy investor HEVA Fund, AFIR brought together 12 producers from Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Angola and Sudan. They presented their projects during one-on-one meetings with investors from banks, private equity firms, development finance institutions and public film funds.

Four Nigerian producers featured in the programme: Abba T. Makama of Osiris Film and Entertainment, Funmbi Ogunbanwo of Fatherland, Josh Olaoluwa of Conceptified Media and Mimi Bartels of Myka Films.

Makama has premiered films at international festivals, including Toronto and Locarno, while his film, Juju Stories, won the Boccalino d’Oro for Best Film. His works have also been distributed on platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video, Canal+ and the Criterion Channel.

Ogunbanwo produced My Father’s Shadow, the first Nigerian film selected for the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a Caméra d’Or Special Mention. The film also won the 2026 BAFTA for Outstanding Debut.

Olaoluwa produced One Woman One Bra, a Kenyan-Nigerian co-production that premiered in Venice and won the Tribeca Audience Award and Best First Feature at the BFI London Film Festival. It also became Kenya’s official submission for the Academy Awards. He was also the showrunner of GRIND, which spent eight weeks at the top of Prime Video Nigeria.

Bartels, who was Nigeria’s highest-grossing film producer in 2021, was recognised for recording a 100 per cent recoupment rate across her productions. She also worked on The Black Book, Netflix’s most-watched African original of 2023, and is a producer on its sequel.

Other participating filmmakers included…

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