Director of the National Film Authority, the Ghanaian public cinema agency, Juliet Yaa Asantewa Asante brought together directors and distributors from November 14 to 16 in Accra to discuss the future of African cinema, during meetings of African cinema (Africa Cinema Summit).
Every time she attends an international cinema event, Ghanaian director Juliet Yaa Asantewa Asante repeats the same thing to herself: the potential of African cinema is immense, but it is still dormant. The African continent, which has the youngest population in the world according to the United Nations, has only 1,700 cinemas, compared to 44,000 in the United States and 75,500 in China. “There are stories to tell everywhere, we have so many stories at our fingertips that we haven’t tapped into yet”explained Juliet Yaa Asantewa Asante to AFP.
And this, despite the recent successes of African films on streaming platforms, such as the Nigerian thriller The Black Book released on Netflix this year. “It still seems unreal to me, The Black Book was seen by more Koreans than Nigerians“, reacted its director Editi Effiong on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
On the continent, the Nigerian film industry, Nollywood, produces around 2,500 films per year and is positioned just behind Bollywood, the Indian giant that dominates world cinema. “But even in Nigeria, the most populous country on the continent, we can do better”added Juliet Yaa Asantewa Asante.
Attract international filming
African countries suffer from a lack of structural investment in this industry which generates around $5 billion per year. But “an increase in investment would create more than 20 million jobs and generate $20 billion in revenue per year”notes Unesco in a 2021 report.
“If governments put in place attractive tax measures, this will encourage the private sector to invest”Juliet Yaa Asantewa Asante told AFP.
According to UNESCO, only half of the countries on the continent have established public policies concerning the audiovisual sector and only 44% of them have a public agency dedicated to the sector. The lack of funding and investment in cinema is structural in Africa, and only a handful of countries see it as an industry that provides jobs.
Lagos State, the economic capital of Africa’s largest economy, is building Hollywood-style film studios to support Nollywood.
Ghana launched a campaign “Shoot in Ghana” (“Shoot in Ghana”) to attract international filming. Recently visiting the country, British actor Idris Elba said that his next film would be shot partly in Ghana, according to local media.