the wedding party nigerian movie wedding dress

Over the holiday season, despite stiff competition from the likes of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” “The Wedding Party” continued to break records. Following its Toronto world premiere, the film arrived on Nigerian screens just weeks after comedian A.Y.’s “A Trip to Jamaica” had itself become the highest-grossing Nigerian film of all time. Among the eight films selected were many that would go on to have strong showings at the Nigerian box office, such as courtroom thriller “The Arbitration” and historical epic “76.”īut it would be City to City opener “The Wedding Party” that would make the biggest splash back home. The results were on display in Toronto last year, when Lagos was featured in the festival’s annual City to City program. “Now they’re beginning to give a cinematic look and feel to their films.”

“Historically, the Nigerian film industry has grown from television,” he says, noting how the industry’s propensity for cropped shots and extreme close-ups is suited to small screens. Both literally and figuratively, says Mkparu, local filmmakers are starting to see the big picture. “The mindset of a lot of producers is that they want to make films that go straight to cinema first,” says Mkparu.Īcross the country, 50 local films had theatrical releases last year, an all-time high. The steady growth of the exhibition industry has in turn fueled a rise in the number of filmmakers who are upping the ante with big-budget, big-screen releases. The West African nation has just 28 cinemas servicing a population of nearly 180 million, though the number of screens has continued to rise since the first multiplex was built just over a decade ago. To succeed, Nigerian helmers face an uphill climb. is the latest hopeful sign that an industry built on the back of its low-budget Nollywood film biz – famous for slapdash storylines and straight-to-DVD releases – can mature into a cinematic powerhouse.

“It helps people deal with the challenges that we’re facing.” “Cinema has become…a safe, fun, friendly outlet to ease the economic pressure,” says Kene Mkparu, CEO of Filmhouse Cinemas, which operates 11 theaters across Nigeria, and which co-produced “The Wedding Party” through its distribution and production arm, FilmOne. “The Wedding Party” capped a record-setting year for the Nigerian box office, which grossed 3.5 billion naira (around $11.5 million) in 2016, with nearly 30% coming from local pics, marking the first time Nigerian films have crossed the billion naira threshold.Īt a time of steady declines, it’s been a rare sign of resilience from the Nigerian economy.

The wedding party nigerian movie wedding dress