African film industry woos investors in Lagos

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 South Africa’s Annemarie du Plessis, Babalwa Baartman, David Franciscus, Neo Baloyi and Zoe Ramushu; Angola’s Jorge Cohen; Sudan’s Khalid Awad; and Ghana’s Kofi Owusu-Afriyie. Their credits include films screened at international festivals such as Cannes, Rotterdam, Toronto and Venice, as well as productions distributed on global streaming platforms.

Ahead of the Lagos meetings, the producers participated in the APA Lab, held from November 2 to 4, where they received training and mentorship in intellectual property, international sales, production, casting and film acquisitions.

The facilitators included intellectual property lawyer Sandra Oyewole of DLA Piper Africa Nigeria; sales agent Sébastien Chesneau of Cercamon; producer Johnathan Dorfman of Stolen Sky Productions; and casting director Kahleen Crawford. Others were acquisitions executive Erica Motley Dupuis of Impact X Capital and Big World Cinema producers Steven Markovitz and Tamsin Ranger.

Alongside the producer-investor meetings, AFIR convened a closed-door roundtable where investors assessed the African film market, shared experiences and explored opportunities for joint investment.

Participating institutions included MBO Capital, Chapel Hill Denham, Sterling Bank, TrustBanc, Kuramo Capital, CANEX Creations Inc., the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa, the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa and HEVA Fund.

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Speaking on the initiative, Olaoluwa said connecting with investors who understood the financial dynamics of filmmaking had changed the funding conversation for producers.

“Meeting investors who are serious about African film, and who already understand how a film makes its money back, changes the conversation for a producer. APA prepared us for that conversation, and Lagos is the right place for it to happen,” he said.

The organisers said the Lagos edition reflected growing interest among Nigerian investors in financing films beyond the domestic market, particularly productions targeting international audiences.

One example was Clarissa, financed by African investors, including CANEX, MBO Capital and Chapel Hill Denham. The film premiered at Cannes in 2026 and is scheduled for release in the United States through Neon in December.

Executive Director of APA and Co-Chair of AFIR, Steven Markovitz, said the initiative was creating opportunities for African investors to exchange knowledge and collaborate on film financing.

“For the first time, there is a critical mass of African investors who understand film and are backing it with confidence,” he said.

He added that AFIR provided Nigerian investors and their counterparts across the continent with a platform to share experiences and explore joint investment opportunities that could benefit the wider African film industry.

Managing Partner of HEVA Fund and Co-Chair of AFIR, Wakiuru Njuguna, said unlocking the investment potential of African cinema required a better understanding of film economics and financing structures that addressed the industry’s risks.

She also stressed the need to recognise value beyond production and build a network of African investors willing to support the industry’s growth.

The Lagos gathering followed AFIR’s inaugural meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, in July 2026.

The initiative will next move to the Marrakech International Film Festival, where AFIR at Atlas Workshops is scheduled to bring together African investors from November 23 to 27.

The organisers said their long-term ambition was to expand the platform to major African cities, building a network of investors and financial institutions committed to the sustainable growth of the continent’s film industry.