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The Creatives, an alliance of independent production companies from across Europe and beyond, has picked 16 screenwriters to participate in a session of brainstorming workshops aimed at developing ideas and pitches for new films and high-end drama TV series.

The group, announced Monday, includes veteran writers Thomas Bidegain, co-writer of The Bélier Family, the 2014 French feature adapted into English as 2021 Best Picture Oscar winner Coda, as well as several collaborations with French director Jacques Audiard, including A Prophet (2009), Rust and Bone (2012) and The Sisters Brothers (2018); Israeli writer Sigal Avin, creator of Apple TV+ Losing Alice; and Denmark’s Julie Budtz Sørensen, a writer on Netflix series The Rain and Chosen.

The 16 writers, joined by 10 producers from The Creatives, will take part in three, five-day workshops across Europe this year. The first will kick off in France’s Île-de-France region this week. The concept of the workshops will see the writers and...

Nigeria’s entertainment industry, known as Nollywood, has been thriving for years — it’s the second biggest film industry after Hollywood — but a truly international, mainstream hit in the orbit of a “Squid Game” or “Money Heist” has so far been elusive.

For a long time, that’s boiled down to a proclivity for insular stories that couldn’t easily travel beyond Nigerian viewership, combined with low production values. But all of that is set to change as Nigerian storytelling targets a more global audience, and streaming backers like Netflix direct resources into premium programming from the country’s top producers.

Netflix’s first Nigerian original TV series, “Blood Sisters,” embodies the market potential that’s in store. The four-part thriller comes from prolific producer Mo Abudu’s EbonyLife Studios, and you’d be hard-pressed to walk away from its explosive premiere episode.

Set in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city,...

Netflix has released the trailer for its first original TV show out of Nigeria, “Blood Sisters.”

Produced by leading Nigerian production company EbonyLife Studios, founded by Mo Abudu, the four-part crime thriller directed by Biyi Bandele and Kenneth Gyang will launch globally on the streaming service on May 5. The show is Abudu’s latest project for Netflix as part of her multi-title deal with the platform.

Set in Lagos, “Blood Sisters” follows a Nigerian wedding where the bride — who is fed up of being beaten up by her partner — accidentally kills the groom the night before their big day. The show tackles themes of intra-family relationships, physical and substance abuse, love, commitment and relationships.

An official description bills “Blood Sisters” as “an ode to life in the city [of Lagos] as it brilliantly juxtaposes the various socio-economic divides in Africa’s most famous commercial and social hub.”

EbonyLife Studios CEO Abudu said:...

The sheer number of films streaming on Netflix on any given day can make finding and deciding on what films to watch an arduous journey through an overabundance of content, navigating with an interface that’s not exactly the most ideal. To assist, IndieWire already runs a monthly series that highlights movies and television series worth streaming on every major platform in the U.S.

As an extension of that popular ongoing series, IndieWire will also publish monthly lists of films and television series that specifically tell Black stories and are streaming on those same major streaming platforms. The list will be updated regularly as new titles become available, and existing titles are replaced. It’s a move partly inspired by what has been referred to as a nationwide racial reckoning, as well as recent reports by the Motion Picture Association and other organizations revealing that so-called ethnic minority groups generally watch more movies,...

International media reports have painted many dire pictures of African struggles in recent years: Nigerian women and girls trafficked for exploitation, African migrants caught in slavery-like conditions in Libya, and others dying as they cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe in search of better lives. As these situations continue, African filmmakers have started to take note. Mati Diop’s Cannes-prize winning “Atlantics” provided one high-profile recent example, but it’s hardly alone. In Nigerian filmmaker Kenneth Gyang’s Netflix film ‘Òlòtūré’ (“Endurance”) tackles the same troubling subject matter in unflinching detail.

Set in Lagos, “Òlòturé” is the story of a naïve young journalist (Sharon Ooja) who goes undercover to expose the brutal underworld of human trafficking. She’s caught off-guard by the dangerous environment she finds, a place teeming with cruel traffickers, pimps, madames and unscrupulous politicians. She ultimately bonds with a group of prostitutes and becomes deeply buried in their world.

The British Council has launched a UK-Nigeria screenwriting initiative called Script Junction, which will officially launch at the upcoming Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff - June 19-23, 2015), which will be followed by a second 5-day program set to take place at the Africa International Film Festival in Nigeria in November. Script Junction targets up-and-coming writers, early in their careers, who are working on scripts of all genres. In total, 12 writers (6 British and 6 Nigeria) have been selected for the inaugural event: Shola Amoo, Maurice Caldera, Russell Davidson, Sam Firth, Matthew Jankes and Jennifer Majka representing the Brits; and Kenneth Gyang, Adiodun Kassim,...

The International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf) has almost always selected a Diaspora project for its many yearly rounds, for as long as I've been following the initiative on this site. Most recently, last December, Donald Mugisha (Uganda) and Vincent Moloi (South Africa) were selected to receive grant money from the fund. And previously, Kenneth Gyang' (Nigeria) award-winning Confusion Na Wa, was was also an Hbf recipient, as was Rwandan filmmaker Kivu Ruhorahoza's Jomo, and others. So I'm always anxious to see what new feature film I'll first learn about, whenever the Hbf (an initiative of the International Film Festival Rotterdam...

In its 21st Edition, New York African Film Festival is a month long celebration of the continent's best of the best with staggering 40+ films slated in its lineup. They will be showing in three different cultural venues throughout the city. The festival presents a unique selection of contemporary and classic African films, running the gamut from features, shorts, and documentaries to animation and experimental films. At Film Society of Lincoln Center, in celebration of the centenary of Nigeria's independence, the series kicks off with Nollywood dark comedy Confusion Na Wa by Kenneth Gyang. Centerpiece film is the much-anticipated Half of a Yellow Sun, directed and adapted by Biyi Bandele and starring Thandie Newton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Anika Noni Rose. The sweeping 1986 epic Sarraounia...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

The Colours of the Nile International Film Festival (Coniff) ran this past month, from March 24-31, with 48 films from around the African continent.  The festival screened several projects that S&A has covered, including Chika Anadu's B for Boy, Kenneth Gyang's Confusion Na Wa, Soussaba Cisse's Rumours of War, David Tosh Gitonga's Nairobi Half Life, and Judy Kibinge's Something Necessary. From Mali, Rumours of War (Ngunu Ngunu Kan), directed by Soussaba Cisse won the Best Feature Film Award, Best Cinematography and Original Soundtrack at the 2nd annual film festival. The jury praised Rumours for "capturing in a...

The Colours of the Nile International Film Festival (Coniff) returns March 24-31 with 48 films from around the African continent.  The festival will screen quite a few projects we've covered on this site, including Chika Anadu's B for Boy, Kenneth Gyang's Confusion Na Wa, Soussaba Cisse's Rumours of War, David Tosh Gitonga's Nairobi Half Life, and Judy Kibinge's Something Necessary. More from the press release below: "The festival provides an opportunity to showcase some of the latest films by African filmmakers in its competition sections and to introduce audiences also to older films that they may not have had the opportunity to see, out of competition, including...