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Dementia psychological drama from the team behind Cameroon's Oscar-submitted Half Heaven opens theatrical rollout across Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, and Ohio in April–May 2026. All distribution territories available. Atlanta, GA  March 24, 2026 Lights Out 2026 film poster, Cameroonian psychological drama starring Wale Ojo BTS | From L to R- Iya Lim , Syndy Emade and Irene Nangi Diaspora-based Check Sense Productions  has announced the international premiere tour for Lights Out, a psychological drama produced by Carista Asonganyi and Buh Melvin (Baba Proxy) and directed by Enah Johnscott. The film stars award-winning British-Nigerian actor Wale Ojo alongside Nollywood veteran Shaffy Bello and Cameroon's Syndy Emade. The feature, which previously screened at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival (SVAFF) and the ORION International Film Festival, where it was a Finalist for Best Feature Narrative Film was featured at the 2025 Abuja International Film Festival (AIFF), where it received nominations across more than five categories, including Best Cinematography, and moves into theatrical premiere across three territories this spring. PREMIERE SCHEDULE April 18, 2026 | Cameroon Avant-Première  |  Majestic Cinemas Bessenge, Douala May 1, 2026  | Côte d'Ivoire & Pan-African Release | Majestic Cinemas, Abidjan Simultaneous release across Cameroon and select Pan-African territories. May 2, 2026   | Ohio, USA Premiere  |  Phoenix Theatres Lennox Town Center 24 | Venue: 777 Kinnear Rd, Columbus, OH 43212 Key cast and producers are expected to attend, alongside invited industry and cultural stakeholders. Following its Cameroon premiere, the film will continue its international rollout across West Africa and the United States. Additional engagements will be announced.. THE FILM  Lights Out 2026 film poster — Cameroonian psychological drama starring Wale Ojo Lights Out ( 87 min., DCP  English, Pidgin English & Dubbed in French ) follows Lucas, a retired security guard placed in a dementia care facility after becoming consumed by his daughter's disappearance. As his memory deteriorates, he must determine whether he is losing his grip on reality or uncovering a truth others want buried. Shot in Limbe, Cameroon, the film confronts the stigma surrounding memory loss and mental health within African communities, a subject often met with fear or mischaracterisation rather than care. Positioned as a character-driven psychological drama, it brings a distinctly African perspective to themes that resonate across global arthouse cinema. "Through Lucas's perspective, the film places the audience inside a mind struggling to hold onto reality, inviting empathy before judgment. What appears as conspiracy slowly reveals confusion  reflecting the emotional truth of cognitive decline."   Enah Johnscott, Director "This film comes from lived experience and from observing families quietly navigating dementia without support. We approached the story with compassion rather than spectacle."   Carista Asonganyi, Producer "Lights Out is intended to spark conversations that move beyond fear and toward awareness and care."   Buh Melvin (Baba Proxy), Writer/Co-Producer THE CAST Lights Out 2026 film Cast — Cameroonian psychological drama starring Wale Ojo" Wale Ojo   Lead  Lucas Award-winning British-Nigerian actor Wale Ojo is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious performers working across Nollywood and international markets. His accolades include Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy (2015), Best Supporting Actor (2018), Best Actor in a Drama (2018), and Best Lead Actor (2024) for Breath of Life , as well as an Africa Movie Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Ngongang Elizabeth Wandji   Lead Monica A veteran powerhouse of Cameroonian cinema, Ngongang Elizabeth Wandji brings nearly two decades of screen experience to Lights Out . With over 30 film and television credits to her name, including the popular series Bad Angel . She is one of the most recognised and decorated performers in the industry. Her accolades include Best Actress at the LFC Awards and induction into the Cameroon Wall of Fame in April 2025. Shaffy Bello   Supporting Maria A veteran of Nollywood with a career spanning decades, Shaffy Bello brings formidable dramatic weight to the ensemble. Her presence anchors the film's emotional credibility within its institutional and familial settings. Syndy Emade   Supporting Beri One of the defining voices of Cameroon's contemporary cinematic renaissance, Syndy Emade brings the cross-border collaboration into sharp relief, underscoring the film's pan-African identity and its relevance to both Cameroonian and Nigerian audiences. THE CREATIVE TEAM Carista Asonganyi   Producer / Founder, Check Sense Productions Carista Asonganyi is a Cameroonian producer focused on socially resonant African storytelling. Her previous credit, Half Heaven (2022), directed by Enah Johnscott and starring Syndy Emade, Roland Seehoffer and Chidi Mokeme, was Cameroon's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards (2024), expanding the country's international visibility on the global stage. Buh Melvin (Baba Proxy)   Writer / Producer Buh Melvin, professionally known as Baba Proxy, is known for Nganù (2023) and Half Heaven (2022), as well as writing credits on The Fisherman's Diary. His work blends social commentary with character-driven narratives grounded in African realities. Enah Johnscott   Director Enah Johnscott previously directed Half Heaven (Prime Video), Cameroon's official Oscar submission, and The Fisherman's Diary (Netflix), one of the country's most internationally visible films. With Lights Out, he continues his focus on psychologically layered storytelling rooted in social consciousness. DISTRIBUTION & PARTNERSHIP Lights Out opens with its world première on April 18, 2026 at Majestic Cinemas, Douala, Cameroon, before its multi-nation release on May 1, 2026.  The producers welcome engagement from additional distribution platforms, cultural institutions, government bodies, and mission-aligned partners whose mandates intersect with public health, aging, and social impact storytelling. Interested parties are invited to contact the production directly. STRATEGIC PARTNER African Pictures International is supporting strategic communications and premiere rollout for Lights Out during its 2026 engagement period. "Lights Out addresses dementia and mental health with compassion and dignity, and we are proud to support Check Sense Productions in strengthening its strategic visibility."   Sahndra Fon Dufe - Founder, African Pictures International PRODUCTION DETAILS Producers:  Carista Asonganyi, Buh Melvin (Baba Proxy) Director:  Enah Johnscott Cast:  Wale Ojo, Ngongang Elizabeth Wandji, Shaffy Bello, Syndy Emade, Libota MacDonald, Irene Nangi, Brenda Shey Elung Production Company:  Check Sense Productions Production Location:  Limbe, Cameroon Language:  English, Pidgin English & Dubbed In French Runtime:  87 minutes Exhibition Format:  DCP Festivals:  Silicon Valley African Film Festival (screened); Abuja Film Festival (official selection); ORION International Film Festival (ORION IFF) To attend or request press accreditation: Cameroon | WhatsApp: +237 650 438 308   United States | RSVP:   eventbrite.com/e/lights-out-movie-premiere-tickets-1979979914223   Press inquiries (all territories):  See below PRESS CONTACTS African Pictures International Email: info@africanpicturesinternational.com   Phone: (+234) 704 928 0787 Phone: +1 404 647 4952 www.africanpicturesinternational.com   PRODUCTION Check Sense Productions Carista Asonganyi, Founder & Producer Email: carista.a@checksenseproduction.com Phone: +1 (614) 344-6773 Phone: (+237) 650 438 308 www.checksenseproduction.com   Reported By African Pictures International

In her 30th year in film and her directorial debut, Nollywood legend, TIME 100 honoree, UN World Food Programme Ambassador, and global screen icon Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde turns Mother's Love into an unprecedented act of giving committing box office proceeds to Slum2School Africa and placing the film among only 4 in global cinema history to make this level of philanthropic commitment. By Sahndra Fon Dufe, Editor in Chief, Black Film Wire Published: March 14, 2026 Mother's Love  Philanthropic Announcement Event, Lagos, March 13, 2026 | Courtesy of RedHot Concepts LAGOS, Nigeria — In a move that industry observers are calling unprecedented in the history of African cinema, the production company RedHot Concepts  has announced that 100 percent of the theatrical proceeds  from its Nigerian feature film Mother's Love  will be donated in full to Slum2School Africa , a Nigeria-based non-governmental organization dedicated to expanding educational access for children in underserved communities. The film is distributed in Nigeria by Nile Entertainment. The announcement was made publicly at a special screening event on the evening of March 13, 2026 organized in barely 48 hours: attended by over 200 guests, including government officials, civil society leaders, and representatives of the international development community, with some traveling from as far as Abuja to be present. Among those in attendance were  Zakari Momodu  of the Dangote Foundation; Ifueko Omoigui-Okauro, Board Member of MTN and Nigerian Breweries; Alero Ayida-Otobo, CEO of the School of Politics and Government and Board Chair of Slum2School Africa; Ambassador Nimi Akinkugbe, former Nigerian Ambassador to Greece; Adeola Azeez, founder of WIMBIZ (Women in Management, Business and Public Service); Rabi Isma, Chairperson of ActionAid Nigeria; Jummai Musa, Country Director of Street Child International; Dr. Victoria Ekhomu, actor in the film and Chairman of Transworld Security Systems; Omolara Cookey, CEO of Noji Arts; Ayodele Alabi of Nigerian Breweries; and Patrick McMicheals, CEO of The Fat Butcher. The evening also welcomed approximately 50 members of the Makoko community: the very community at the heart of the film's story,  including traditional rulers Baale Alashe Francis Agoyon, Chief Kpanke Victor Usa, and Chief Shemede Emmanuel, whose presence gave the announcement its most profound dimension: the community itself bearing witness. According to a formal Board of Directors resolution by RedHot Concepts, all proceeds accruing to the company from the theatrical cinema run of Mother's Love during its 8-to-10-week exhibition period are committed entirely to Slum2School Africa. The funds will support educational programs and, where possible, housing assistance for families in vulnerable communities — with particular emphasis on the Makoko waterside settlement in Lagos, whose stories and lived realities are central to the film's narrative. (L to R) Ifueko Omoigui-Okauro, Board Member of MTN and Nigerian Breweries; Patrick McMicheals, CEO of The Fat Butcher; Alero Ayida-Otobo, CEO of the School of Politics and Government and Board Chair of Slum2School Africa; Otto Orondaam, Founder & Executive Director of Slum2School Africa; Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Director and Producer of Mother's Love; Omolara Cookey, CEO of Noji Arts; and Adeola Azeez, co-Founder of WIMBIZ  | Mother's Love  Philanthropic Announcement Event, Lagos, March 13, 2026 | Courtesy of RedHot Concepts A GLOBAL RARITY: WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS MOVIE POSTER |Mother's Love (2025) | Directed by Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde | Courtesy of RedHot Concepts Research by Black Film Wire finds that, globally, fewer than five films in cinema history have been documented as committing 100 percent of their theatrical proceeds: not merely net profits, but proceeds — to charitable causes. The distinction matters enormously in film finance. In standard theatrical distribution, revenue is divided before it ever reaches a producer: cinemas typically retain 45–55 percent of ticket sales, and distributors take a further cut before the producer sees a single naira. What reaches RedHot Concepts at the end of that chain is already the hardest-earned portion, the share that comes last, after everyone else has been paid. It is precisely that share:  every percent of it , that Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has chosen to give away entirely. Among the most cited global precedents of films that pledged their producers' proceeds or profits: The Promise (2017): Produced by the late Armenian-American billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, this film about the Armenian Genocide pledged all profits to humanitarian and human rights organizations, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The commitment covered the producer's profits, not gross proceeds. Devotion (2022): Producers at Black Label Media arranged for future revenues,  after recoupment of production costs and contractual obligations  to be directed to the Hudner Navy Scholarship Foundation, supporting children of U.S. Navy veterans. One Direction: This Is Us (UK re-release, 2025): Following the death of Liam Payne, this concert film returned to select UK cinemas in a special run in which 100 percent of ticket profits were donated to mental health awareness charities. Black Film Wire found no prior documented case of a film produced or released on the African continent committing 100 percent of proceeds from its full theatrical run to a charitable cause. Mother's Love is a verifiable first for Africa. Importantly, the RedHot Concepts commitment is structured around proceeds, not profits. The company has not attached conditions of recoupment before the donation begins. According to its Board resolution, the donation is effective across the entire duration of the film's Nigerian theatrical exhibition period, overseen by an independent legal adviser and auditor. CONTEXT: HOW FILM AND PHILANTHROPY HAVE INTERSECTED — AND WHY MOTHER'S LOVE IS DIFFERENT To fully appreciate the historical weight of the Mother's Love decision, it is instructive to examine how other notable films: globally and on the African continent, have approached the intersection of cinema and charitable giving. In every comparable case, the commitment was either partial, indirect, profit-based, or campaign-driven rather than a total, unconditional, proceeds-level donation from a full theatrical run. Globally, some of the most celebrated examples of film philanthropy include: Schindler's List (1993): Director Steven Spielberg refused to personally profit from the film, directing his earnings toward the creation of the USC Shoah Foundation. The institution has since documented more than 55,000 Holocaust survivor testimonies and grown into one of the world's most significant historical archives. The model here was creator profit donation; a filmmaker giving personal earnings, not box office proceeds. Black Panther (2018): The film did not donate its box office revenue to charity. However, it sparked one of the most powerful charity screening movements in modern film history. Activist Frederick Joseph launched the #BlackPantherChallenge, which raised over $1 million to bring more than 20,000 children from underserved communities to theaters for free. The campaign demonstrated the mobilizing power of film-adjacent philanthropy; but was driven by donors outside the production, not by the producers themselves. Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Force for Change (2015): Disney and Lucasfilm partnered with Omaze for a campaign in which fans donated for a chance to attend the world premiere and meet the cast. The initiative raised over $4.26 million for UNICEF and other global children's charities. This was a premiere fundraising model tied to experiential access, not to ticket proceeds. On the African continent and in Africa-focused cinema, the philanthropic models have been similarly indirect, meaningful, but structurally distinct from what RedHot Concepts has now done: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Netflix, 2019): Chiwetel Ejiofor's acclaimed film about Malawian inventor William Kamkwamba dramatically amplified awareness and donations for the Moving Windmills Project, a nonprofit supporting schools, STEM education, and renewable energy in rural Malawi. The film functioned as a global awareness engine for an existing social mission,  but did not donate its own revenues. Beat the Drum (South Africa/U.S., early 2000s): This HIV/AIDS-focused social impact film helped generate proceeds that supported the establishment of Beat the Drum Village in Kenya, a facility providing housing, education, medical care, and food for children orphaned by the epidemic. One of the clearest African examples of film revenue contributing to permanent charitable infrastructure — though through distribution proceeds, not theatrical box office. Shout Gladi Gladi (documentary): This documentary addressing obstetric fistula: a devastating childbirth injury disproportionately affecting women in sub-Saharan Africa partnered with the Freedom From Fistula Foundation. Screenings worldwide were used as fundraising events for surgical treatment programs, making the film a direct tool for medical giving. Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project: Actress Charlize Theron has used film premieres and gala screening events to raise funds for her foundation's HIV prevention and education programs across Africa. These premiere-plus-gala models, combining VIP ticket sales, celebrity appearances, and donor tables, represent a well-established indirect mechanism for film-adjacent charity fundraising. In every case above, the philanthropy was partial, campaign-based, campaign-adjacent, or linked to distribution revenue rather than the entirety of theatrical proceeds. None involved a production company formally resolving, by Board decision, to transfer 100 percent of its own share of the box office to a named NGO for the full duration of a theatrical run. That is precisely what makes Mother's Love structurally unprecedented. "The Nollywood First: When Omotola Turned a Film into a Gift for Nigeria." — Nigerian industry observer THE WOMAN BEHIND THE FIRST: 30 YEARS, ONE DEBUT, ONE HISTORIC DECISION The significance of this announcement is inseparable from who is making it. Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde is celebrating her 30th year in the Nigerian film industry in 2026, a milestone that places her among the most enduring and influential figures in African cinema. In those three decades, she has been one of Nollywood's most recognizable faces, an actress whose work has been seen by hundreds of millions of viewers across the continent and its diaspora. Mother's Love marks another milestone: it is her debut as a director. The film that Omotola has spent years developing, shooting on location in Makoko, navigating through production challenges including a personal surgery, and shepherding to Nigerian cinemas via Film One — is her first film as a director. That she chose this film, on this occasion, to make this decision, is not incidental. The film centers on Labake, (played by Omotola) a mother whose relentless sacrifice for her daughter Bisi, and her unwavering belief in Bisi's friend Obaro sets him on a journey from the Makoko waterfront to international recognition as a tech innovator. The parallel with Omotola's own real-world decision is not merely symbolic. By committing 100 percent of the film's theatrical proceeds to Slum2School Africa: an organization that serves thousands of children in the very communities where Mother's Love was filmed, Omotola has enacted, offscreen, the same kind of fierce, unconditional giving that her character Labike embodies on it. She is not simply playing a mother who gives everything for her child.  She has become, through this act, a mother to thousands of children she will never personally know; children in Makoko and communities like it, whose education, dignity, and futures now rest in part on what she was willing to give. It is a juxtaposition that African storytelling rarely produces so cleanly: the fiction and the reality folded into one another, the character and the creator becoming indistinguishable in their generosity. In her 30th year. On her directorial debut. With her first film. Audience at Mothers Love Special Screening at Ebony Life Cinemas THE FILM, THE COMMUNITY, AND THE PARTNERSHIP Mother's Love draws on the authentic lives of communities like Makoko, one of West Africa's largest waterside settlements to explore themes of maternal sacrifice, social inequality, and the transformative power of education. A central character, Baruch, rises from Makoko to study in New York, win technology competitions, and build a successful app; a narrative arc that Slum2School Africa's team recognized immediately as a mirror of its own learners' journeys and aspirations. The partnership between RedHot Concepts and Slum2School Africa predates the theatrical release. Slum2School Africa opened its classrooms, learning centers, innovation labs, and office spaces in Lekki as production locations, without charging any fees  because the organization saw the film as an opportunity to tell the stories of the communities it had served for over 14 years. "When she mentioned she wanted to do this in the community, it was an opportunity for us to give back we had worked in this community for over 14 years. The storyline mirrored what 100 percent of our learners experience: being judged before they are seen. We felt it was important to leverage the platform." — Otto Orondaam, Founder & Executive Director, Slum2 Orondaam added: "There was nothing that was planned. There was nothing that was expected. There was nothing that was anticipated." Addressing an audience that included members of the diplomatic community, development partners, and press at the March 13 screening event, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde described the decision as a moment of unexpected moral clarity: "A few days ago, I experienced what I can only describe as a moment of moral clarity. A thought came to me with unusual force: align your debut with your passion." — Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Producer & Director, Mother's Love Reflecting on her decades of humanitarian advocacy — as a UN World Food Programme Ambassador, an Amnesty International Advocate, and a partner to organizations including Save the Children UK and ONE — Omotola framed the decision as an extension of a lifelong mission: "My passion has always been rooted in advocating for vulnerable communities, particularly children whose potential is limited not by ability, but by circumstance. Then God put it in my heart to do what I'm about to announce. I struggled with it, argued with it... But that moment of clarity challenged me to ask a deeper question: What if the story did more than inspire? What if, all along, God wanted it to directly transform lives?" — Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde She outlined the accountability mechanisms accompanying the donation including direct transfer of proceeds by distribution partner Nile Entertainment to Slum2School Africa, independent audit oversight, and a commitment from Slum2School to publish a comprehensive public report on outcomes before closing with a direct call to her peers across the global creative industry: "I hope this moment serves as an invitation to my colleagues in the creative industries worldwide. Film, art, and culture possess enormous influence. When we align that influence with compassion and responsibility, we can transform platforms into instruments of progress. Tonight, Mother's Love becomes more than a film. It becomes a promise to use our voices, our stories, and our influence to expand possibility where it is needed most." — Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, speaking at the Mother's Love announcement event, Lagos, March 13, 2026 WHY THIS MATTERS FOR AFRICAN CINEMA The announcement arrives at a pivotal moment for the African film industry. Nigeria's Nollywood, now the world's second-largest film industry by volume, has spent the past decade building the theatrical infrastructure, digital distribution networks, and international partnerships necessary to compete on the global stage. Films like Mother's Love represent a new generation of Nigerian productions that aspire not only to commercial success but to structural social impact. The trajectory of Mother's Love  also reflects a broader pattern Black Film Wire has tracked across Nollywood: a maturing industry cycle in which A-list talent is increasingly moving into directing, producers are asserting creative ownership, and multi-territory visibility is becoming central to long-term brand equity. Omotola's transition from actress to director-producer is not an outlier:  it is the leading edge of where the industry is heading. That she has used that transition to set a global philanthropic precedent makes the moment doubly significant. Mother's Love  Philanthropic Announcement Event, Lagos, March 13, 2026 | Courtesy of RedHot Concepts The Mother's Love model is structurally different from all prior African philanthropic film efforts. It does not rely on a secondary campaign or third-party fundraising. The production company itself has resolved, by formal Board resolution, to transfer 100 percent of its own proceeds from the theatrical run. That resolution is accompanied by provisions for independent legal and auditing oversight, a level of institutional accountability that signals this is not a gesture, but a governance decision. The implications for the continent are significant. If replicated, the model creates a template by which African filmmakers can transform their theatrical runs into direct social investment vehicles connecting the economics of cinema to the funding needs of the communities that inspire their stories. Attendees at the March 13 screening event reportedly pledged additional individual contributions on the night, suggesting the announcement is already catalyzing a wider wave of giving. Black Film Wire has followed Mother's Love  since its inaugural festival appearance in June 2025, when Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde was awarded a Certificate of Excellence in the category of Debut Filmmaker;  a distinction that, in retrospect, foreshadowed both the film's steady ascent through the international circuit and the historic announcement that now defines its legacy. ABOUT SLUM2SCHOOL AFRICA Slum2School Africa is a Pan-African nonprofit organization based in Nigeria with over 14 years of continuous work in underserved communities, including Makoko. Its programs focus on expanding access to quality education through scholarships, learning centers, academies, and broader community development initiatives. The organization has built strong partnerships with international institutions and has served over one million learners since its inception. Courtesy of SLUM2SCHOOL ABOUT MOTHER'S LOVE Mother's Love is produced by RedHot Concepts and distributed in Nigeria by Nile Entertainment. The film draws on the authentic lived experiences of communities including Makoko, Lagos, exploring themes of maternal sacrifice, social inequality, and the power of education to transform lives. It marks Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde's debut as a film director, released in her 30th year in the Nigerian film industry. The film was produced in partnership with Slum2School Africa, which provided community access, filming locations, and institutional support throughout production.  Prior to its Nigerian theatrical release, Mother's Love  traveled an extensive international festival circuit — with screenings at SVAFF, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the Dubai International Film Festival, and the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) building sustained diaspora engagement and press momentum across multiple territories. The film will subsequently embark on a global theatrical tour timed for Mother's Day 2026. ### © 2026 Black Film Wire. All rights reserved. For rights and permissions, contact info@blackfilmwire.com

The Platform is folding into Paramount+. Tyler Perry's stake is gone . And for Black filmmakers, the questions are bigger than the headlines Tyler Perry Theo Wargo/WireImage The news broke Friday with the kind of quiet corporate language that tends to mask seismic shifts. Paramount, BET's parent company, will fold BET+ into Paramount+ beginning in June, migrating more than 1,000 hours of content originals, movies, and specials, to the flagship streamer.   The six-year-old platform is shutting down.   And with it goes something more than a subscription tier. The announcement follows Paramount Global's August 2025 acquisition by Skydance, after which new CEO David Ellison signaled the consolidation of Paramount+, BET+, and AVOD platform Pluto TV onto a single shared technology platform.   Friday's move is the first full execution of that vision and it likely won't be the last. Ellison and his senior team have cited the streamlining of streaming platforms as a core example of their ability to cut costs from mature media businesses, with the Paramount+/BET+ consolidation potentially previewing what lies ahead for Paramount+ and HBO Max following the proposed WBD merger.  Tyler Perry's Exit The deal came with a significant side transaction. Paramount acquired Tyler Perry Studios' minority equity stake in BET+ a stake Perry had reportedly held since the platform's 2019 launch, believed to be around 25 percent and valued in the tens of millions. Financial terms were not disclosed. Perry is not disappearing from the picture entirely. A Paramount spokesperson confirmed Perry will "continue to be a valued and important partner through his overall programming agreement,"   a deal signed in 2024 featuring a nine-figure payment, running through 2028.   His shows including All the Queen's Men  and Zatima  will make the migration to Paramount+. But his ownership stake, and the creative leverage that comes with it, is now gone. That distinction matters. There is a difference between a creator with equity and a creator with a contract. One has a seat at the table. The other has a schedule. What Happens to BET+ Content and Its Creators? BET Networks President Louis Carr framed the move in expansive terms. In a memo to staff, Carr wrote that BET content "will live alongside Paramount's premium series, sports, specials and films, where it will be clearly branded, prominently featured and easy to find in the BET Hub."   He added that BET remains "an essential part of Paramount's portfolio and long-term content strategy." BET's linear TV channel, BET Studios production arm, and BET Digital will continue operating as before.   All the Queen’s Men (BET +) Current BET+ subscribers will be offered a discounted rate to transition to Paramount+.   The optimistic read: more eyeballs on Black-led content. A larger platform means broader discovery, bigger audience potential, and less fragmentation for subscribers who were already juggling multiple services. The harder question: what happens to the editorial independence and cultural specificity that made BET+ meaningful in the first place?  A dedicated platform built explicitly for Black audiences is not the same thing as a branded hub within a general-interest streamer no matter how prominently it is featured. The Bigger Picture for Black Filmmakers BET+ was never perfect. But it was specific . It was a platform where Black-led projects were not the exception or the diversity initiative, they were the entire point. That specificity created a market, a pipeline, and a proof of concept that Black stories could anchor a streaming business. The absorption into Paramount+ does not erase that content. But it changes the ecosystem around it. When your programming lives inside a larger platform's algorithm, you compete differently. Discovery is no longer guaranteed by the nature of the platform itself, it becomes subject to recommendation engines, editorial featuring decisions, and subscriber behavior shaped by a much wider and more varied content library. For independent Black filmmakers and producers, this moment is a reminder of a structural vulnerability: when the infrastructure built for your stories is owned by others, its survival is always contingent on someone else's business case. The BET Hub may be prominently featured today. What it looks like in two years under a merged Paramount-WBD entity, inside a streaming landscape still finding its economics, is a question worth asking now. The move takes effect June 2026.

The Nile Entertainment-distributed family drama, which traveled from TIFF to PAFF before its domestic launch, continues its run nationwide. Noray Nehita stars in Omotola Jalade Ekeinde’s Directorial Debut Mother’s Love Lagos/Los Angeles -   Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde 's Mother's Love  has crossed the ₦25 million mark (approximately $18,000 USD at current exchange rates) at the Nigerian box office following its opening weekend, distributor The Nile Entertainment  confirmed Monday. The film opened wide in cinemas nationwide on March 6, 2026 , following a Lagos premiere on March 1  at Alliance Française in Ikoyi, under the theme "Old Money Glam." The milestone lands for a film that carries particular significance: it marks Jalade-Ekeinde's feature directorial debut after more than 30 years as one of Nollywood's most bankable stars: a transition the industry has been watching closely since the project surfaced at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival  in September 2025, where it screened as part of the TIFF Industry Market. The film also screened at the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF)  in Los Angeles on February 16, 2026, alongside a strong diaspora audience. Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Noray Nehita,Lilian Afegbai star in Mother’s Love The 102-minute drama-thriller, produced under RedHotConcepts , centers on Adebisi (played by Noray Nehita ), a young woman from an affluent, sheltered household whose NYSC year opens her world and accelerates a reckoning with her protective mother, Labake, whom Jalade-Ekeinde plays herself. The cast also includes Ifeanyi Kalu , Lilian Afegbai , Nosa Rex , and Olumide Oworu , with a soundtrack featuring singer Jodie's original recording of "Kuchi Kuchi." Mother's Love  entered a competitive March 6 corridor alongside Laju Iren 's Onobiren: A Woman's Story  and Kilanko: The Invisible Child , a Yoruba-language drama produced by Rotimi Salami  and directed by the late Allwell Ademola , whose final work the film represents. Hollywood horror sequel Scream 7 , which opened February 27 to ₦22 million in its first frame, remains in play at multiplexes. Reported by Nigerian Box Office | March 9 2026 Nile Entertainment, the Lagos-based distribution outfit founded by veteran film executive Moses Babatope , has been building an ambitious slate that includes Son of the Soil  the Razaaq Adoti-led action thriller that launched theatrically in Nigeria in November 2025 and moved to Netflix Africa  on March 1 as well as festival title A Serpent's Gift  from director Kayode Kasum . Mother's Love  represents the company's marquee theatrical bet for the quarter. The film is currently in cinemas nationwide. A global theatrical tour is planned, with a release timed to Mother's Day  in select markets. Nile Entertainment Mother's Love  is distributed by The Nile Entertainment. Running time: 102 minutes.

A $50 million fund. Nine projects. Filmmakers with Cannes, Neon, Netflix, and Venice already on their résumés. The Next Narrative Africa Fund's inaugural slate raises a question its own mission demands we ask Noray Nehita stars in Omotola Jalade Ekeinde’s Directorial Debut Mother’s Love The Next Narrative Africa Fund has announced its inaugural slate. Nine projects. Drawn from more than 2,000 submissions across 80 countries. The names attached are impressive: Trevor Noah, Rapman, Thuso Mbedu, André Holland, the Esiri Brothers.  The projects are ambitious. The fund itself, a $50 million initiative founded by former diplomat and media executive Akunna Cook, is structured to do something genuinely different: $10 million in development grants for scripts, and a $40 million commercial fund that deploys equity once a project is ready to go to market. According to Black Film Wire, it is one of the most consequential financing structures aimed specifically at African storytelling to emerge in the current decade. The architecture is sound. The intent is serious. And the inaugural slate deserves to be reported as exactly what it is: a credible, well-resourced opening statement from a fund that has set its own bar high. That said, the bar it has set invites a real question. And we are going to ask it. Who Got In? And Where We've Seen Them Before Let's be precise about the nine, because the details matter. Trevor Noah  (Beyond Day Zero, South Africa) needs little introduction, but the project does. The action film follows the daughter of a powerful water tycoon who joins forces with a township gangster to challenge the system. Screenplay by Amy Jephta , one of South Africa's sharpest working writers. Noah produces through his Day Zero Productions company, which has been building a film and television pipeline since his departure from The Daily Show. His entry here is not that of a celebrity attaching himself to a project,  it reflects a production outfit making a deliberate push into feature cinema. Trevor Noah Neilson Barnard/Getty Images Rapman  (Untitled Political Thriller, Sierra Leone-UK) is the British-Sierra Leonean filmmaker born Andrew Onwubolu, whose trajectory in five years has been remarkable. He built a following with his self-distributed Shiro's Story trilogy on YouTube before landing Blue Story in UK cinemas in 2019 and creating Netflix's Supacell, a grounded superhero drama set in South London that became one of the streamer's most discussed British originals. His NNAF project, a Sierra Leone-set political drama about a young soldier unexpectedly thrust into power, is a tonal departure that signals where he wants to go next. Photo courtesy of NICK WALL The Esiri Brothers   Arie  and Chuko  (Innocent, Nigeria) are the Lagos-born, London-based directing and writing duo behind Eyimofe (This Is My Desire), which won the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlin in 2021 and became one of the most critically discussed Nigerian films of the decade. Their NNAF entry is a Lagos whodunit. Of note: their forthcoming film Clarissa, starring Sophie Okonedo, David Oyelowo, and Ayo Edebiri, was recently acquired by Neon for U.S. theatrical release. They are, in the most precise sense of the term, already in the pipeline. Images courtesy of Guardian Life Thuso Mbedu  (Untitled Action Drama, South Africa) starred opposite Viola Davis in Sony Pictures' The Woman King (2022) and led Barry Jenkins' The Underground Railroad for Amazon before that. Her NNAF project which she stars in, co-writes, and produces follows two fashion models who mastermind a heist to steal government gold jewelry to buy back ancestral land. It is directed by Amanda Lane , whose credits include episodes of Station Eleven and The Watcher. Mbedu is one of the most internationally recognized African actors working today. Her presence here raises the fund's commercial profile considerably. Image courtesy of Gari Askew André Holland  (United States of Africa, Ghana) is the American actor best known for Moonlight, The Knick, and Castle Rock, serving as executive producer on this Cold War-era Ghanaian spy series created by British-Ghanaian writer-director Carl Kwesi Earl-Ocran . Earl-Ocran is the relative unknown on this list, a London-based filmmaker whose short films Arachnid and Hackney Downs ran the international festival circuit, who was selected for the inaugural BAFTA Connect network in 2022, and who runs a small independent production company in London. He is the emerging voice in this pairing. Holland is the infrastructure around him. Imdb Mohamed Kordofani  (About Love & September Laws, Sudan) directed Goodbye Julia, the Sudanese drama that became the first Sudanese film to screen in Competition at Cannes, in 2023, and went on to win the Freedom Prize in Un Certain Regard. He is an established filmmaker by any international measure, though his profile outside festival circles remains smaller than many of the names above. His NNAF project is set in 1983 Sudan as Sharia Law takes hold urgent historical material, co-written with Khaled Alwaleed. Courtesy of Anas Subahi/Ambient Light Films Boma Iluma  (Untitled Sci-Fi Romance, Nigeria) is, on this list, the name closest to genuinely emerging. He grew up between Abuja, Nigeria and Atlanta, Georgia, studied theater, cinema and International Relations at USC,   and built his career through a short film Comfort selected for Lena Waithe's Rising Voices Fellowship that premiered at Tribeca 2021 and was acquired by Amazon Prime Video. Roman Coppola subsequently handpicked him to write and direct a segment in The Seven Faces of Jane.   In 2022 he made his television debut on The Chi, directing four episodes and becoming one of the network's youngest directors. He was included on Forbes' 2025 30 Under 30 in Hollywood & Entertainment. His NNAF project, a near-future Nigeria where aliens live alongside humans is his first feature. He belongs on this list. The question is how many more like him there are, and whether they got in. Courtesy of Boma Iluma Website  Zoey Martinson  (Comedy Horror, Ghana) is frequently described in early coverage as an emerging filmmaker. The record is more complicated. She has directed for A24, HBO Max, and Hulu/Disney+. Her debut feature The Fisherman screened at the 81st Venice Biennale and earned the UNESCO Fellini Medal.  Western Union  She was among the ten female directing finalists on Issa Rae's Project Greenlight. She is a working, internationally credentialed filmmaker whose genre comedy project Gen Z friends accidentally disrespecting an ancient deity on vacation sounds like exactly the kind of commercially viable African story the fund says it wants. The Benchmark The NNAF is not operating in isolation. The African film funding landscape has been expanding, and it is worth understanding where this fund sits within it. Afreximbank's $1 billion Africa Film Fund, announced through its development investment arm FEDA , is designed to promote production and global distribution of high-quality African films and TV series.   It is the largest capital commitment to African cinema in history and, as several producers noted at Durban recently, it remains largely inaccessible to most African filmmakers, with barriers to entry that are too high for the independent mid-tier. The Red Sea Fund has supported over 280 films since 2021, with a model that opens to Arab, African, and Asian filmmakers across fiction, documentary, and animation, including first-time directors. The Realness Institute and the Durban FilmMart Fellowship have consistently prioritized first and second features from emerging voices on the continent itself. The EAccelerate Fund, run by the East Africa Screen Collective, operates at smaller scale — grants of up to €20,000,  but its cohort is made up entirely of filmmakers still building toward their first significant platform. The NNAF's commercial slate sits at the far end of that range. It is not a discovery fund. It is, by design and by outcome, a bet on names with market traction. That is not a criticism — it is a structural choice, and the fund's architects are entitled to make it. Development money has to come back. Equity requires a rationale. But when a fund receives 2,000 submissions from 80 countries and announces nine projects, the composition of those nine is itself a statement about what the fund believes is commercially viable in African storytelling. And the nine here skew, heavily, toward filmmakers who already have access to the rooms this fund is meant to open. Next Narrative Fund The Question the Fund Invites The NNAF's inaugural commercial slate is impressive by any measure. The question it raises: one the fund's own mission invites is whether development support attached to names already in Neon's acquisition pipeline fills the gap the continent's emerging voices actually face, or whether it validates a market that was already moving. The answer may lie in the 125 scripts the venture studio plans to support over five years. Those names, when they are announced, will tell the fuller story. What we want to see next: transparency about the grant-side cohort, a visible commitment to filmmakers outside Lagos, Accra, Cape Town, and London, and a second slate that reflects the full breadth of the 2,000 people who believed enough in this fund to submit. The ambition is right. The infrastructure is serious. The capital is real. Now let's see what it opens. The Next Narrative Africa Fund was founded by Akunna Cook. Nine projects were selected from 2,000+ submissions across 80 countries. The commercial fund will finance up to 20% of any one budget across a projected slate of 20–25 projects. The development grant program aims to support approximately 125 scripts over five years.

British-Chinese Director, Chee Keong Cheung ’s action thriller, Son of the Soil , has attained the top spot on the Netflix Nigeria Top 10 Chart less than 24 hours after release. This follows the film’s arrival on the streaming giant, after impressive showings at the 2025 African International Film Festival  (AFRIFF) and Black Star International Film Festival  (BSIFF) and the 2026 Pan-Afriican Film Festival .  The film follows Zion Ladejo ( Razaq Adoti ), an ex Nigerian soldier who returns to Nigeria from the US to exact revenge on the underworld characters who murdered his sister. It stars Sharon Rotimi , Philip Asaya , Taye Arimoro , Kehinde Hannah Alagbe , Iretiola Doyle , Patience Ozokwor , and Damilola Ogunsi.  Son of the Soil  is the first in a series of action films to be produced and distributed by Nile Entertainment  as part of a first look deal with Action Xtreme, the genre label of the UK’s Sovereign Films. It won three awards at the (BSIFF), including Best Director, Best Overall Film, and Best International Showcase.  Son of the Soil is streaming on Netflix.

A Review of Eso Dike’s Latest Film Official poster for The Ground Between Us.  Source: Eso Dike TV/YouTube  There is a particular kind of courage required to tell a story that touches the sacred; not a polished, stained-glass version of it, but the raw, complicated, unglamorous reality of faith working itself out in a human being. Eso Dike 's The Ground Between Us , now streaming on YouTube via Eso Dike TV , reaches for that courage. And while it doesn't fully arrive in every area, what it achieves is more than worth your time and more than enough to signal that this filmmaker and producer is growing with every project.  The Story The Ground Between Us  follows Pastor Timothy (Eso Dike) and Doyinsola Coker ( Ekama Etim-Inyang ), two rivals locked in a bidding war over the same piece of land, each driven by ambition, legacy, and pride. What begins as strategy quietly turns into something deeper, until betrayal fractures everything that had been quietly built between them. It is, at its core, a love story about faith, ambition, forgiveness, and the painful cost of choosing success over the heart. The film’s cast also includes Amarachukwu Onoh  as Pastor Victor, and  Eve Isikalu  as Enosa.  It was written by Owumi Ugbeye  and directed by Jide ‘JBlaze’ Oyegbile , with Executive Production by Tutu Sene  and Eso Dike. Inem King joined Eso Dike as a primary Producer.  What the Film Gets Right: Intimacy, Performance, and Direction The first thing you notice watching The Ground Between Us  is how still it is. Director Oyegbile has made a deliberate and confident choice to keep things close; the scenes are intimate, and the emotional weight is carried through presence. This is harder than it looks. Many filmmakers mistake volume for depth. As such, here, the restraint is refreshing. A still from The Ground Between Us showing Pastor Timothy (Eso Dike) and Doyinsola Coker (Ekama Etim-Inyang) on the contentious piece of land.  Source: Eso Dike TV/YouTube The acting ensemble is strong across the board. Eso Dike leads with undeniably magnetic charisma, committed to the material, and increasingly comfortable in front of the camera. But the performance that arguably carries the film belongs to Ekama Etim-Inyang as Doyinsola Coker. Recognisable to fans from Lancelot Imaseun’s comedy Mutual Benefits , Ekama brings texture, vulnerability, and earned emotional truth to her character. There is a specificity to the way she moves through guilt, and ultimately resolution that makes you track her arc with real investment. Little surprise that she's trained as a professional actor.  These are talented people, well-directed. Jide Oyegbile knows how to make a scene breathe, and he deserves credit for drawing performances this grounded, from his cast. The World We Needed to Live In An audience cannot feel the weight of a world it hasn’t been allowed to see. Think of the Korean drama His Royal Highness Bon Appétit , every episode immersed viewers so deeply in the research, the ingredients, the history of Korean royal cuisine, that they were educated and enchanted at the same time, without feeling lectured to. The goal was never to avoid the world. It was to inhabit it so completely that the audience had no choice but to follow. Or consider Quinta Brunson's Abbott Elementary  and how there would be no show without the classroom. You cannot spend an entire series with teachers talking  about  teaching without ever seeing them teach. The school is the argument. Remove it, and you lose the stakes entirely. The Ground Between Us  is, at its heart, a pastor's story  and yet we never see Pastor Timothy on a pulpit. We never see him lead a congregation, navigate a difficult counselling session, or carry the full public weight of the role that is about to cost him everything. Script choices that place Pastor Timothy within the congregation would have made his character more immersive.   Source: Eso Dike TV/YouTube This is a significant missed opportunity, and it matters more than it might seem. Consider what a single well-crafted scene could have done: Pastor Timothy counselling a newly married, inter-tribal couple,  something atypical to a Lagos congregation, and something that would have quietly linked to the very tension already present in the film between him and Doyinsola; given that her being Yoruba and his different background is part of what the plot eventually surfaces. A scene like that would have done the triple task of  establishing him as a pastor in his element, planting thematic seeds, and deepening the cultural texture of the story. We do get one glimpse: a scene of him preparing for Bible study after his fall from grace. And there is something in that image. But the landing would have hit far harder had we already seen him in front of a congregation, full of the authority that pride had built  so that the quiet, humbled man preparing notes alone becomes a genuine contrast. The fall from grace needs a height. Without it, the collapse doesn't carry the full weight it deserves. The congregation is the very ground the story stands on. It is about respecting the world you've chosen to inhabit deeply enough to show it to us in full  and trusting that audiences can handle the richness of it. Here is where the conversation gets even more specific, and where the film's most significant opportunity for growth lies. At the heart of this story is a pastor who falls  and in the spiritual tradition the film is drawing from, that fall has a very clear anatomy. The Bible is not ambiguous about it. "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall"  (Proverbs 16:18). "God opposes the proud but shows grace to the humble"  (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5). "Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honour"  (Proverbs 18:12). Pride, in Scripture, shows up in behaviour, in the way a person moves through rooms, in how they receive correction, in how they treat people who can do nothing for them. Amarachukwu Onoh’s Pastor Victor is the persistent voice of reason in the film.  Source: Eso Dike TV/YouTube And critically, the warning precedes the fall. To the credit of writer Owumi Ugbeye, the film acknowledges this through Pastor Victor’s presence. The assistant pastor carries that warning voice; a choice that is both scripturally grounded and narratively sound. But where the arc remains incomplete is in the journey back. When everything falls apart for Pastor Timothy, the narrative demands more than a monologue or a verbal admission of pride. The arc establishes his pride convincingly, but what it does not fully dramatize is the process of its breaking. Transformation must be rendered in action, not simply acknowledged in reflection. While the film gestures toward that reckoning, framing ambition as a form of pride, the dismantling never receives equal narrative weight. The result is an arc that feels partial rather than complete. The journey back is suggested, but never fully embodied. Compare this to Greenleaf  (OWN Network)  a drama series set entirely within a church world  where Bishop James Greenleaf's pride was stitched into every scene: the way he moved through a congregation, the way he received (or refused) correction, the way he spoke to family. So when the collapse came, it was earned. Viewers felt the weight of his fall from such a height. And the journey back,  when characters did journey back,  was behavioural and physical. By contrast, Doyinsola's arc demonstrates this more successfully. We see her have hard conversations with her friend. We see her sit inside guilt. We watch her move from one emotional state to another through action and consequence. That is a complete arc, and Ekama Etim-Inyang honours every beat of it. The script gave her more to work with in terms of internal journey, and she delivered. On Pastor Timothy's Character Presence This is the next frontier in his evolution. Eso Dike has built something genuinely impressive: a YouTube channel with over 140,000 subscribers and 268 videos, consistently pulling over a million views within days of release. He has been Nollywood's go-to YouTube rom-com lead, warm, attractive, grounded, and deeply likeable in that space. He has stepped into producing with confidence; The Ground Between Us  serving as a clear statement of intent. That foundation is substantial. In Her Name , another film on Eso Dike TV starring the leading pair and NollyTube fave, Michael Dappa.  Source: Eso Dike TV/YouTube  And it is precisely because of that track record that the next frontier matters. Playing Pastor Timothy required something different from what Eso's audience loves him for  and that difference is the challenge. Contemporary pastors who are polished, sharp, and culturally fluent absolutely exist. Think of Nigeria's own Pastor Jimmy ‘PJ’ Odukoya  (former Nollywood star whose credits include The Woman King ) or P-Flo  of Logic Church  dynamic, stylish men who also carry an unmistakable pastoral gravity. That gravity which is  slow to anger, present in stillness, carrying the weight of other people's souls  is what was needed to layer onto Eso's natural magnetism. The comparison that stays with me is his brief but electric appearance in the 2022 Netflix thriller Blood Sisters , where he played Ibrahim. He was on screen for only a short time  and yet I remember leaping from my seat. There was nothing of “Eso Dike” in that performance. The voice was different. The body language was different. The eyes were different. He had disappeared entirely into someone else. That  is the range that lives inside him. The invitation in The Ground Between Us  is for that same depth of transformation to meet a lead role to sustain that disappearing act across an entire film. When that happens, it will be extraordinary to watch. Why the Writers' Choice Works for the Ending Now, for something the film got right and in getting right, said something important. The ending does not give us the reunion. And this choice, made by writer Owumi Ugbeye and honoured by the producers, is one of the most admirable and satisfying decisions in the entire film. Audiences raised on YouTube romantic dramas know the formula: two people meet, conflict builds, something breaks, someone runs, and they end up together. It is safe. And it is not always how life works. A still from the closing scene. Source: Eso Dike TV/YouTube  The Ground Between Us  chooses differently. Doyinsola arrives at a place where she can offer hard-won forgiveness  while simultaneously maintaining her boundary. “ I forgive you. I don't have to be your person. ” That ending reflects something profoundly real about how healing works: reconciliation of the heart does not always require resumption of the relationship. Sometimes the most loving and courageous thing is to release someone with goodwill and walk forward separately. There's a reason so many viewers commented "Don't leave it like this"  and their longing is deeply human and completely understandable. That response is a sign the story worked. But the writers' choice to hold the line is admirable precisely because it resists the easy comfort. It trusts the audience to sit with something more complex. That trust is a mark of creative maturity. The ending carries the sensation of a Part 2. There is enough open space that a continuation feels possible. But the advice is: resist it. Leave the story where it is. The incompleteness is the point. The power of this ending comes from its restraint  in what it says and what it refuses to give. Undoing that with a sequel would undercut the very thing that makes the ending brave. If there is a desire to return to this world, consider instead giving Doyinsola her own story. A spin-off that follows Ekama Etim-Inyang's character  where she goes next, how she heals, how she eventually encounters love again on her own terms  could be genuinely compelling. Not a revisit to Pastor Timothy. A new beginning for a character who, honestly, deserved even more screen time than she was given. The Bigger Picture: A Producer and Filmmaker in Progress Eso Dike's Actor Profile on FilmFlux's Scene 45. Source: FilmFlux.app   The most honest thing to say at the end of this is also the most encouraging: Eso Dike is getting better. He is more stable on camera. More present. More willing to hold space inside a scene rather than rushing to fill it. That growth is real. The fact that he is also now shaping not just performances but entire stories  adds another dimension to watch. The distance between ambition and full execution in The Ground Between Us  is not a reason to slow down. It is a reason to go deeper: into the world of pastoral life, into the mechanics of character transformation, into the spiritual grammar of the stories he is choosing to tell. The bones of this story are right. The instincts are right. What remains is the work of filling those bones with the full weight of the world they inhabit  and on the evidence of everything Eso has built so far, that work is already underway. The Ground Between Us  is worth watching for its performances, its brave ending, and for what it signals about the evolution of YouTube-era Nollywood, digital-first filmmakers increasingly willing to explore moral complexity, even as execution continues to mature. Watch it now on YouTube via Eso Dike TV . Then share your thoughts in the comments. The conversation really does begin when you press play. Have you seen The Ground Between Us? What did you think of the ending? Drop your thoughts below.

From Seedance 2.0's cease-and-desist battle with Disney to the first AI-directed features reaching theatrical release, the creative industry faces a structural transformation. For Black filmmakers, the moment carries both historic opportunity and familiar risk. The letter arrived on a Tuesday. Disney's legal team sent ByteDance a cease-and-desist  demanding the immediate removal of Seedance 2.0's training data, alleging the AI video platform had ingested a library of copyrighted characters: from Star Wars to Marvel to The Simpsons, without authorization, licensing, or compensation. Within 48 hours, Paramount had filed  its own complaint. SAG-AFTRA followed. The legal machinery of the world's largest entertainment conglomerate had been activated against a video generation tool that, as of the previous week, most of the industry had barely heard of. The speed and force of Hollywood's response reveals something more important than any individual copyright dispute: the industry now recognizes that AI-generated video is not a future problem. It is a present one, and it is moving faster than the legal frameworks built to contain it. What that acceleration means for Black filmmakers specifically  for directors, producers, writers, and visual artists who have navigated a studio system historically resistant to their work  is a question that deserves more than a footnote in the broader conversation about artificial intelligence and creative labor. Seedance 2.0: What It Is, What It Does, and Why Hollywood  Panicked Seedance 2.0  is a video generation model developed by ByteDance, the Beijing-based parent company of TikTok. Released in February 2026, the platform allows users to generate cinematic-quality video footage from text prompts alone, not rough approximations, but material that independent reviewers and industry observers described as approaching professional visual effects quality. Demonstrations circulated widely across social media showing action sequences, atmospheric establishing shots, and character-driven scenes generated from single-sentence inputs. Comparisons were made to the arrival of DeepSeek earlier in the year: another Chinese-developed AI system that arrived without the industry's permission and immediately redefined expectations of what the technology could produce. Disney CEO Bob Iger.  Source: CNN Disney's cease-and-desist alleged that ByteDance had trained Seedance 2.0 on proprietary IP without authorization, treating the company's characters, likenesses, and narrative assets as effectively free training data. Paramount's subsequent filing expanded the scope of the dispute, citing alleged infringement across its portfolio including South Park , Star Trek , and SpongeBob SquarePants . The Human Artistry Campaign, whose membership includes SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America, called  the platform "an attack on every creator around the world." ByteDance responded by affirming its respect for intellectual property rights and committed to strengthening existing safeguards, a statement that satisfied few parties. "The question is not whether AI will generate film content. Disney's own partnership with OpenAI's Sora platform confirms the answer to that question. The argument is about who controls the terms." The most instructive detail in the Seedance 2.0 dispute is not the cease-and-desist itself but what it sits alongside. Disney has simultaneously pursued aggressive litigation against ByteDance while entering a commercial licensing arrangement with OpenAI for its Sora video generation platform, with curated AI-generated content set to stream on Disney+. The intellectual property argument and the commercial AI partnership coexist without apparent contradiction. The question is not whether AI will generate film content. Disney's own actions confirm the answer to that question. The argument is about who controls the terms. For independent filmmakers  including those who have historically been excluded from the studio system  that distinction matters enormously. The tools exist. The legal frameworks around their use are being written in real time by the most powerful players in the industry. Whether those frameworks preserve access for independent creators or consolidate power among major studios will define the next decade of film production. The AI Creative Landscape: February 2026 in Review The Seedance 2.0 dispute, while dominant in coverage, was not the only significant development in AI and creative technology this month. A broader survey of the sector reveals an industry in active, turbulent transformation. ElevenLabs Co-Founder Mati Staniszewski. Source: vestbee Voice Technology and the Likeness Question ElevenLabs  released a significant update to its real-time voice synthesis platform this month, addressing longstanding latency issues that had limited its commercial application. The updated system produces near-instantaneous voice replication that reviewers described as difficult to distinguish from live human speech, with accurate reproduction of tone, pacing, breath, and regional accent. The advancement has direct implications for actors, voice artists, and broadcasters. The U.S. Copyright Office has ruled  that work created solely by AI cannot be copyrighted, but federal protections around voice likeness remain inconsistently defined across states, and no comprehensive federal legislation has passed. The gap between technological capability and legal protection continues to widen. Production Automation: Krea's Prompt-to-Workflow Creative AI platform Krea launched  prompt-to-workflow this month, a system that converts a single text description of a creative task into a full automated production pipeline. For independent filmmakers and small production companies, the implication is a meaningful compression of both timeline and budget at the pre-production and visual development stages. The tool is being positioned as a collaborative resource for creators rather than a replacement for creative labor, though the distinction will be tested as adoption scales. UNESCO's Economic Warning The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization released its annual cultural monitoring report  in February, issuing projections that received limited coverage relative to their significance. The report estimated that generative AI could drive income losses of 24 percent for music creators and 21 percent for those working in audiovisual sectors by 2028, with AI-generated content flooding global markets faster than policy responses can be developed. The same report noted that the majority of professional artists have now integrated AI tools into their workflow in some capacity, presenting the paradox of a technology that simultaneously threatens industry incomes and is being adopted by the same industry to remain competitive. Awards Season's Counter-Signal Against this backdrop, the current awards season has tilted noticeably toward films that foreground human emotional interiority, with works including Hamnet , Sentimental Value ,  and   Frankenstein  leading critical conversations. The trend represents a market signal  prestige cinema audiences are, at least for this cycle, gravitating toward work that positions itself in deliberate contrast to AI's aesthetic register. Whether that positioning represents lasting cultural preference or a transitional moment remains to be seen. Divergence in the Executive and Talent Ranks The range of responses from actors, directors, and executives reflects an industry that has not reached consensus  and may not. Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey at the Variety-CNN Town Hall where McConaughey's controversial AI statement emerged.   Source: Variety Matthew McConaughey , in a widely circulated conversation with actor Timothée Chalamet, offered what observers characterized as among the most pragmatic assessments to come from the talent community. McConaughey argued that actors who approach AI primarily as a moral issue rather than a strategic one are likely to cede control  of the terms on which it enters the industry. His recommendation  that talent protect their likeness, voice, and image through legal ownership structures proactively  reflects a position grounded less in enthusiasm for the technology than in a candid assessment of its trajectory. George Clooney addressed  the question from a different angle, describing the visual capabilities of OpenAI's Sora 2 as genuinely alarming to industry figures who had previously dismissed AI video as low quality. "The quality was much better and it's scary," Clooney said. He also noted having encountered unauthorized AI-generated content featuring his likeness  content he described as dangerous rather than merely inconvenient. Directors have been less measured. Guillermo del Toro stated  he would not use AI in his work under any circumstances. Rian Johnson described the technology as making every aspect of filmmaking worse. Bong Joon-ho, speaking at the Marrakech Film Festival, addressed  the subject with characteristic dryness. James Cameron, 72, has prohibited  generative AI from his productions while separately developing proprietary AI tools to accelerate his own workflow, a distinction he considers meaningful. The Human Artistry Campaign , backed by more than 700 signatories including Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, Questlove, and Vince Gilligan, has organized opposition around the specific issue of training data  arguing that AI companies profited from copyrighted creative work without authorization or compensation, rather than opposing AI development categorically. "The talent agencies are already exploring representation agreements with AI-generated performers. Emily Blunt's response was brief: 'Come on agencies, don't do that.'" Talent agencies, meanwhile, are exploring representation agreements with AI-generated performers, digital actors built from consented human likenesses who exist both within narrative content and on social media, capable of audience interaction outside the film frame. Emily Blunt's response  to news of agency discussions on the matter was brief: "This is really, really scary. Come on agencies, don't do that." IndieWire offered a counterpoint to the more alarmist projections, arguing that current AI capabilities remain demonstrably limited in the areas that define prestige performance: nuanced emotional delivery, physical stillness, the specific register of grief or restraint that audiences read as authentic. The viral AI clips that have generated the most attention tend to feature action and spectacle, not the quiet scene between two people in a room that constitutes the majority of dramatic cinema. The First AI Films: From Experiment to Theatrical Release The question of whether AI can make a film has moved from speculative to documentary in the space of eight months. Official poster for Post Truth.  Source: IMDb  Post Truth , a feature-length documentary by Turkish artist Alkan Avcıoğlu , became the first fully AI-generated film to receive a wide commercial theatrical release, opening across 58 locations in July 2025 and receiving substantive critical engagement despite significant industry skepticism about AI-produced work. The Sweet Idleness , releasing this month, represents a more structurally ambitious experiment. The film is directed by FellinAI, an AI agent given genuine creative autonomy over aesthetic and narrative decisions. The production uses human actors who have consented to the existence of their digital counterparts, and those digital performers maintain active social media presences that allow audience engagement outside the theatrical experience. The subject matter  a dystopian future in which employment has nearly ceased to exist  provides an uncomfortable parallel to the conditions surrounding its own creation. OpenAI is backing Critterz , an AI-animated feature targeting a Cannes Film Festival introduction in May 2026. The project is positioned as significantly more cost-efficient than traditional feature animation, a claim that, if validated in production, carries significant implications for an animation industry already under substantial economic pressure. In India, Intelliflicks Studios  is completing the country's first entirely AI-generated feature, integrating image generation, video animation, audio synthesis, and lip-synchronization tools across a single production pipeline. The primary technical challenge the studio has cited is character consistency  generative AI's probabilistic architecture means that a character's appearance subtly shifts between scenes without deliberate corrective intervention. Human actors present no equivalent problem. What This Means for Black Filmmakers:  The structural conditions of Hollywood's gate-keeping have been documented extensively and do not require rehearsal here. The persistent underrepresentation of Black directors at the studio greenlight level, the funding gaps at independent production, the institutional requirement that Black-led films demonstrate commercial viability before being granted the resources routinely available to comparable white-led projects  these are known conditions. What has changed is the technological environment in which those conditions now operate. The case for AI tools as a meaningful equalizer is not theoretical. Production capabilities that required eight-figure budgets five years ago are becoming accessible at independent scale. A director with strong creative vision and limited capital can now develop visual materials, proof-of-concept sequences, and pre-visualization content at a quality level that was previously unavailable to them. The barrier to demonstrating a film's visual potential, historically a significant obstacle for underfunded independent projects seeking studio or investor attention, is being materially lowered. "The barrier to entry won't be capital. It will be imagination. That sentence sounds like liberation. It also requires scrutiny." The barrier to entry won't be capital. It will be imagination. That sentence sounds like liberation. It also requires scrutiny. AI video models are trained on existing visual content. Existing visual content  the commercial film and television archive that constitutes the primary training corpus for most major models  reflects the aesthetic priorities, the casting defaults, the lighting standards, and the narrative frameworks of a studio system that has historically underrepresented Black creatives both in front of and behind the camera. Several AI researchers have flagged that current video generation models demonstrate measurable inconsistency in producing naturalistic representations of Black characters across extended content. The bias is not a function of intent. It is a function of data. The implications are direct: a tool positioned as a democratizing force carries within its architecture the aesthetic assumptions of the industry it is theoretically disrupting. Black filmmakers who adopt these tools without engaging with how they were built, what they were trained on, what their defaults are, where their limitations concentrate  risk building on a foundation that has been shaped by the same exclusions they are attempting to work around. Director Noel Braham at Essence Fest.   Source: Essence At the 2025 Essence Festival of Culture , Emmy-nominated director Noel Braham and creative technology executive Shavone Charles addressed this directly. Braham encouraged Black creatives to approach AI as a collaborative instrument rather than a shortcut, arguing that meaningful use requires genuine engagement with the creative process. Charles pressed further, emphasizing that participation in the AI era must extend beyond consumption of finished tools to include understanding of how those tools are built, trained, and monetized. "We have to be inside the brain of AI," Charles said, "not just consuming it." That framing, not just consuming it, is the relevant standard. The AI creative economy is being built now. The training datasets are being assembled now. The aesthetic defaults are being established now. The decisions being made in 2026 about what AI learns to recognize as cinematic, as dramatic, as beautiful, as commercially viable, will shape the outputs of these tools for years. Black filmmakers who engage with those decisions  who contribute to training data, who work with developers on bias correction, who build AI-native production practices on their own terms  are positioned differently than those who wait to see what the system produces and then attempt to work within it. The African American Film Marketplace has engaged this question directly, noting that AI tools can extend creative autonomy and resource access for independent filmmakers, but only if the community moves deliberately to shape tool development rather than simply adopting tools after the fact. The distinction between shaping and adopting is not rhetorical. It determines who the technology is built for. Conclusion: The Terms Are Being Written Now The Seedance 2.0 dispute will be resolved through litigation, negotiation, or both. The AI-directed films releasing this month will be reviewed, debated, and placed in a historical context that is still being formed. The celebrity statements will continue. The tools will continue to improve. What will not wait is the question of who participates in building the infrastructure of the AI creative economy and on what terms. The window in which those foundational decisions are being made  about training data, about default aesthetics, about whose creative labor is valued and compensated and whose is simply absorbed  is open now, and it is not open indefinitely. The history of the film industry suggests that Black creatives who engage the moment of transition actively, rather than responding to the industry that emerges from it, are better positioned than those who do not. The tools are genuinely more accessible than anything that has preceded them. The risks are also genuine. Both things are true, and neither excuses the other. The argument for engagement is not that AI is good for Black filmmakers. It is that the alternative  ceding the terms of this transition to those who have always set the terms  is worse.

A shocked Michael B. Jordan receives his Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Lead Role. Source: Actor Awards The 32nd annual Actors Awards  (fka The Screen Actors Guild Awards/SAG-AFTRA Awards) held on Sunday March 1, 2027. It proved to be a mix of upsets, expected wins, and exciting moments, with Sinners  setting the tone for the night with two wins. In a shocking yet deserving twist, Michael B. Jordan  took home the statuette for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (Motion Picture) for his role as the Smoke-Stack twins; Viola Davis’ excited announcement would serve as one of the more memorable moments of an already incredible night. Sinners  won the coveted prize for a film ensemble.  Other upsets on the night include Keri Russell  ( The Diplomat ) winning in the Best Female Actor in a Leading Role (Drama Series) over Rhea Seehorn   ( Pluribus ) .  Harrison Ford  was presented with the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award for his decades-long contribution to the craft of acting. In his acceptance speech, the Indiana Jones and Star Wars  icon said, “Success in this business brings a certain freedom that comes with responsibility to support each other, to lift others up when we can. To keep the door open for the next kid, the next lost boy who's looking for a place to belong. I'm, indeed, a lucky guy. Lucky to have found my people. Lucky to have work that challenges me. Lucky to still be doing it. And I don't take that for granted.” As the Awards season trudges to a close, the Actor Awards outcomes appear to be somewhat predictive for some of the outcomes in the Oscars race. The Best Supporting Actress race has now seen different winners at the BAFTAs  ( Wunmi Mosaku  - Sinners ), Golden Globes  ( Teyana Taylor  - One Battle After Another ), and Critics’ Choice  ( Amy Madigan  - Weapons ), with the latter also winning at the Actors Awards. Similarly, the Best Supporting Actor race had different winners at the Critics Choice ( Jacob Elordi  - Frankenstein ), Golden Globes ( Stellan Skarsgård  - Sentimental Value   ) and BAFTAs ( Sean Penn  - One Battle After Another ), with the latter picking up yesterday's statuette.  The full Awards list can be found below:  Film Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Frankenstein  Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners — WINNER Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Chase Infiniti ( One Battle After Another ) Emma Stone ( Bugonia ) Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)  — WINNER Kate Hudson ( Song Sung Blue ) Rose Byrne ( If I Had Legs I'd Kick You ) Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Ethan Hawke ( Blue Moon ) Jesse Plemons ( Bugonia ) Leonardo DiCaprio ( One Battle After Another ) Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)  — WINNER Timothée Chalamet ( Marty Supreme ) The Sinners cast receive their Award for Outstanding Performance by A Cast in a Motion Picture Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Amy Madigan (Weapons)  — WINNER Ariana Grande ( Wicked: For Good ) Odessa A’zion ( Marty Supreme ) Teyana Taylor ( One Battle After Another ) Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another) Jacob Elordi ( Frankenstein ) Miles Caton ( Sinners ) Paul Mescal ( Hamnet ) Sean Penn (One Battle After Another) — WINNER. Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture F1. Frankenstein Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning — WINNER One Battle After Another Sinners Television  The Piitt cast receive their Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.  Source: Actor Awards Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Abbott Elementary Hacks Only Murders in the Building The Bear The Studio  — WINNER Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Landman Severance The Diplomat The Pitt  — WINNER The White Lotus Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Catherine O’Hara ( The Studio ) — WINNER Jean Smart (Hacks) Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) Kathryn Hahn ( The Studio ) Kristen Wiig ( Palm Royale ) Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Adam Brody ( Nobody Wants This) Ike Barinholtz ( The Studio ) Martin Short ( Only Murders in the Building ) Seth Rogen ( The Studio ) — WINNER Ted Danson ( A Man on the Inside ) Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Aimee Lou Wood ( The White Lotus ) Britt Lower ( Severance ) Keri Russell ( The Diplomat ) — WINNER Parker Posey ( The White Lotus ) Rhea Seehorn ( Pluribus ). Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series Billy Crudup ( The Morning Show ) Gary Oldman ( Slow Horses ) Noah Wyle ( The Pitt ) — WINNER Sterling K. Brown ( Paradise ) Walton Goggins ( The White Lotus ) Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Christine Tremarco ( Adolescence ) Claire Danes ( The Beast in Me ) Erin Doherty ( Adolescence ) Michelle Williams ( Dying for Sex ) — WINNER  Sarah Snook ( All Her Fault ) Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Charlie Hunnam ( Monster: The Ed Gein Story ) Jason Bateman ( Black Rabbit ) Matthew Rhys ( The Beast in Me ) Owen Cooper ( Adolescence ) — WINNER Stephen Graham ( Adolescence ) Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series Andor Landman Squid Game Stranger Things The Last of Us  — WINNER For more Awards season updates, read and follow the Black Film Wire .

In the last decade, across film, TV, music and other media, there has been a notable shift in how consumers engage with tart. Access to previously distant data and unmasking of the celebrity mythos a la social media, among other factors, have made it such that fans are more invested in the product, producers, and the business. A random Hollywood enthusiast living on the other side of the planet can easily tell you what actors and directors make the most money. Disagreements about international Box Office earnings can be resolved with a few key strokes. This is the case in most countries.  In Nigeria, this data isn’t as readily available. And it was this gap that prompted the creation of the brand, Nigerian Box Office, back in 2021. Operating anonymously, but with verifiable data, the brand, which is notably active on  X (FKA Twitter), with over 6,000 followers, and Instagram , with over 270 followers, has become referential for Nollywood. In five years, they have established themselves as a foremost authority on the industry’s numbers, giving insight and analytics to fans and stakeholders alike.  In this interview with Black Film Wire, Nigerian Box Office’s anonymous handler tells us about its origins, methodology, challenges, and relevance in the changing media landscape; why Brotherhood ’s Box Office numbers require more attention and the lessons to take from Funke Akindele ’s billion Naira grossings.  This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  How did the Nigerian Box Office come about?  I’d long been a film enthusiast. But I was also interested in the business of film: the box office, the budgets, what really happens behind the scenes in terms of the numbers, contracts, and how everything just comes together. My interest spiked for Hollywood movies. As far back as 2015, we’d go to the cinemas to watch a Hollywood movie, and could see the business side. But that was the opposite for Nigerian movies, where very few had the data.  2016 was when my interest in Nollywood movies really took off. The Wedding Party  made me see Nollywood from a different perspective and made me interested in our local box office numbers. The numbers weren’t published. There wasn’t a verifiable platform, as we have now. They were posting from the Wikipedia page, and I kept seeing the grossings go up. The interest continued, but the challenge was the lack of verifiable data at the time.  In February 2018, we formed an organisation called the  Cinemas Exhibitors’ Association of Nigeria (CEAN).  They had a partnership with Comscore  and a mandate to start reporting the box office numbers publicly, with a verified, globally recognised platform [like Comscore]. By December 2018, they started publishing the data. They were publishing twice a week, for the opening weekend and the full week.  When we say opening weekend, we refer to Friday, Saturday and Sunday; and when we say the full week, we refer to Friday to Thursday.  So, they published twice: on Monday for the weekend of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and on Friday for the full week of Friday to Thursday. What also made my interest go up was that prior to Comscore, some numbers were just pure estimates. For instance, a movie like The Wedding Party  would just write 450 million, but I know that a movie can’t just gross a perfect number like that. There’s always a certain amount So, I started investigating, I dug deeper and got in touch with the people behind these numbers to understand how it works. I could also see that for the US Box Office, there were platforms such as  Box Office Mojo  and The Numbers that did a good job breaking down the numbers, and I wanted that for Nigeria. So I took it upon myself and started keeping track of this data.  I wanted to be able to make sense of it outside of the ones published on a weekly basis. I contacted most of the distributors to request some of their numbers. In essence, I was able to get sufficient data to build up my portfolio and keep up with Comscore. Around March 2024, they stopped publishing, which was more than 5 years after. Once I contacted them, the feedback I was given was that Nigeria’s distributors and exhibitors now have access to the platform, or they have always had, and Comscore would no longer publish directly. They would hand over that charge to the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association of Nigeria to publish. So, the rate of publishing drastically reduced. From doing it twice a week, it went to once every two weeks. There was a huge gap.  Eventually, I got contacted by one of the distributing companies — whom I now consult for — and I was also able to get access to Comscore, giving me first-hand access to the numbers presented. I can dissect it on a different level. I also have access to the old numbers that were not on Comscore. I try to get the latest information or the latest figures that I have for old blockbusters that we have, but I think to a very large extent, I confidently have an understanding and a good knowledge of the box office over the past seven to eight years now.  The [X] account was opened in 2021. I didn’t want to use my personal account to talk about movies all the time, so I started connecting with film enthusiasts on Twitter (now known as X), and we kept on going. Of course, December-January is always a peak period for the account, where everybody is heavily interested. That has been the journey for the Nigerian Box Office. To clarify, CEAN was still active until 2024, thereabouts and even last year, but the data is not always up-to-date. As it stands currently, how does most of your data come in? As I explained, I now have access to Comscore, and that’s where I get my data from. It’s the same platform that CEAN uses. They [CEAN] still publish; however, they only publish on their Instagram account, and it isn’t as frequent as it used to be. While before they would publish on their website  and also publish on their Instagram, they have now limited it to just Instagram. Then, we were in talks with a tech company that wanted to see how they could connect an API directly to Comscore’s platform so that it could update automatically. But the company itself has had challenges getting access to Comscore, which has stalled the website development.  CEAN’s response to unfair practices claim in December. Source: CEAN Instagram Right now, CEAN’s Secretary or President is in charge of that, and they’ve been trying to publish once every two weeks, which isn’t adequate for a regular film enthusiast. A lot of people tend to rely on our account or the distributors’ account to get information about the box office.  What is one moment of tracking you can’t forget, either based on the reactions of people or the amount of work that went in? Since I started reporting the Box Office, one of my most memorable occasions has been with the movie Brotherhood,  released on September 23rd, 2022, I think. It’s not as though it was the most impressive or the biggest of box offices, but the staying power all through its time in cinemas was huge. The staying power and the multiplier it did for a September movie is second to none.  So, typically, in the box office, there is something called a ‘multiplier’. A ‘Multiplier’ refers to how well your film opens over the opening weekend, divided by what it does in total gross. Typically, you have movies diminishing, meaning that their opening weekend is the strongest and it keeps diminishing til their final lifespan. You look at a multiplier to see the audience’s interests in a movie. How well was the word of mouth? Was it good or bad? And in terms of my coverage, Brotherhood  was spectacular! It did a multiplier of over ten; 10.48 or 10.5, which is very impressive. For instance, if you open to 31.3 million Naira, then that means it did ten times the opening weekend figure, about 328 million Naira. And I know you can just look back on it and say, “Oh, but that’s what Funke Akindele would do in one weekend or would do in one week”. However, it meant a lot for the time, and the dynamics were different.  Official poster for Brotherhood. Source: Greoh Studios Why most producers want December is because the week before Christmas till the week after New Year is a holiday period for most people, and consumer spending is at its peak. So, you would have the box office overperforming in December.  I’ll give you an instance; from Dec. 20th - 26th, the box office did about 922 million Naira. That was more than September, October, and November, respectively. The week of the 27th [of December] to the 1st of January, 2026, produced more than 1.4billion Naira at the box office. That was more than any other month in 2025 apart from January and December. All through the year, whether it was with Ginger, Superman , The Fantastic Four: First Steps , Iyalode ,  Sinners  — basically all those months that felt so good — that week alone outperformed all of them.  It just shows you how much the box office has significantly reduced compared to 2019 or 2018, except with December, where you would always see similar figures. If you check, say, December 2019, you would probably see about 240k – 245k in admissions. If you check the same week from last year’s December, you would still find a similar figure. But if you check July or February, you will find something like 35,000 or 45,000, which is low compared to 2018 or 2019. I referenced those years because they were the peak of cinema-going before COVID happened and before streaming came into full play and changed people’s habits. What I’m trying to say is that  Brotherhood  played as though it were a December movie, despite coming out during a non-holiday period. It excites me and is still something I will probably write about or publish on one of these days.  There have been major concerns about admission numbers compared to the box office revenue numbers. Aside from inflation, what are the not-so-obvious factors being ignored when it comes to these low admission numbers?  One of the underlying issues is the economy. Entertainment as a whole works with disposable income, so people will have to feed or clothe themselves first.  I think streaming also took away a lot of box office numbers.  The streaming habit has just really changed a lot of viewing patterns. What that means is that they wouldn’t go to the cinemas unless you have the biggest of movies; it has to be the biggest of blockbusters, something with so much FOMO before people would go, else they’ll be like “I can just wait for it to come to Netflix, or Prime, What’s the rush?”  Also, there’s the fact that some films’ cinema windows are so short that they are exclusive in theatres for as low as 17 days. Some of them will only do 28 days before it goes to a TV–holding or VOD platform, and once it goes to those platforms, it gets pirated and you see copies of it online. Pre-COVID, you had Hollywood doing 45 - 90 days of exclusivity windows for their movies in the theatres. That means for about 6-14 weeks, you would not be able to watch that movie on any other platform apart from the cinemas. Right now, the windows have shortened. You still have some studios like Disney, keeping their movies longer in the cinemas, but other studios like Universal and Warner Bros. are a bit more swayed. And with platforms like Netflix bidding for Warner Bros, the future of exhibition is unclear. These are some of the factors that have really affected the cinema culture.  Moving forward, what are the things you have in mind for the brand? What are the expansions and projects you intend to take on that followers should look out for? I’ve started being more intentional with the Nigeria Box Office account. I have gotten a lot busier these days, and I’m unable to post as I would have wanted. One feedback I got from particular distribution companies and studios was that I was reporting very early, thereby not giving producers and distributors time to breaknews, so I’ve had to slow down how quickly I report or post things at times. Going forward this year, I will try to post more analysis of what is going on at the box office, and include more [analysis] about admissions.  I have even tried to verify the account so that I’m able to post more in terms of characters, because it was a missing factor. I didn’t just want to have so many tweets and threads lined up. I have also started collaborating more. There is a sort of direct partnership with Nollywire on Instagram. I have tried to expand my footprints, reaching out to media platforms; certain media use my data without necessarily reaching a partnerships and I really don’t mind, as far as you are quoting or giving credits to me. Basically, people should expect to see more collaborations.  However, I’m a lot busier than I was before, so there may be downtimes. There may be periods when I may go silent, but I’m also looking at how I can get other team members who can take on some of these responsibilities.  How do you deal with fandoms on Twitter and elsewhere? I basically ignore, to be honest. I don’t try to explain too much. I won’t call them a mob, but sometimes they can act like a mob, so I will just say I ignore them. If I see you genuinely want to ask a question, then I may answer.  One thing people do not pay enough attention to concerning box office numbers. There are a lot of things. People love to use Funke Akindele’s success to gauge the rest of the industry. But those numbers are a result of consistency, hard work, building a fanbase and an audience. People should do their research; contact a knowledgeable distribution company to give them relevant information before going out to do a project and expecting to do billions of Naira.

St. Kitts and Nevis implements mandatory biometric data for Citizenship by Investment Programme. What Black film stakeholders need to know about mobility The Citizenship by Investment Unit of St. Kitts and Nevis has announced the upcoming implementation of mandatory biometric data collection for all new applicants under its Citizenship by Investment Programme (CBI), with the measure expected to take effect before the end of Q1 2026. The initiative aligns the Federation’s security protocols with standards maintained by leading jurisdictions, including the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom. According to H.E. Calvin St. Juste, Executive Chairman of the Citizenship Unit, the move reinforces the integrity and global reputation of the programme. “This biometric initiative underscores our unwavering commitment to maintaining the integrity and reputation of St. Kitts and Nevis as a responsible global partner. By implementing these enhanced security measures, we are ensuring that we meet the highest international standards while contributing meaningfully to global border security efforts. ” he stated in the Press Release. Under the new framework: I. Biometric data collection will be mandatory for all new applicants II. Existing citizens who acquired citizenship through the programme must comply within an extended transition period. III. Native-born nationals are not affected. Further guidance on implementation timelines for existing programme citizens is expected in the coming weeks, per the release.  Why This Matters for International Black Film Stakeholders For many international Black producers, financiers, and high-net-worth creatives operating across Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and North America, citizenship-by-investment programmes are strategic mobility tools. They come in handy for a global production industry where co-productions span multiple jurisdictions, festival travel and market access require flexible mobility, film financing structures rely on international banking relationships, diaspora investors operate between continents, and passport strength and compliance standards directly affect deal flow. Enhanced biometric protocols signal increased regulatory scrutiny and alignment with major global security systems. For Black global creatives leveraging Caribbean jurisdictions for investment diversification or mobility planning, this update reflects a broader shift toward heightened due diligence expectations worldwide. Even an indigenous company like MSR Media, which in 2022, committed  to producing 35 feature films on the dual-island territory, has its job set out, ensuring potential investment deals and work agreements aren’t hampered.  Hon. Mark Brantley, Premier of Nevis and Minister of Tourism and Foreign Investment in the Nevis Island Administration with Philippe Martinez, MSR Media producer and director on set in Nevis in February 2021.  Source: Nevis Island Administration According to Black Film Wire , regulatory recalibration within Caribbean CBIs mirror tightening compliance trends across cross-border financing and identity verification systems, areas that increasingly intersect with film production and media entrepreneurship. Caribbean citizenship programmes have faced increased global review in recent years, particularly in relation to visa-free travel agreements and international financial transparency standards. By implementing biometric collection measures, St. Kitts and Nevis signals proactive alignment with evolving global compliance norms — a move likely aimed at maintaining visa access credibility and institutional trust. For film stakeholders navigating international production ecosystems, the takeaway is awareness. Mobility strategy now operates within a compliance-first era. As such, it is essential for stakeholders to evaluate all travel processes, either for participation at festivals, shoots, or any other business. It would also help in potential deal negotiations and large-scale inter-continental partnerships.  For more film and TV businezz insights, check out the Black Film Wire’s resources  section.

Final Draft updated its Terms of Service in 2026. Here's what Black filmmakers, screenwriters, and indie film students need to know before your scripts disappear. When a company like Final Draft  updates its Terms of Service and End User License Agreement , it's easy to dismiss as legal housekeeping. But that is not the case If you're building IP, pitching streamers, developing festival-bound scripts, or working on anything you intend to own and monetize, those terms directly affect your access, your files, your billing rights, and what happens if something goes wrong. Final Draft,  the industry-standard screenwriting software,  updated both documents as of yesterday, 23rd February, 2026. We read through every page so you don't have to. Here's what independent filmmakers, especially those without in-house counsel, need to pay attention to:  The File Deletion Question: Three Things You Actually Need to Know This is the most urgent section in the entire document for working writers. The Terms contain a permanent deletion clause, and the details matter. 1. Is Deletion Immediate  or Is There Notice First? There is a 30-day grace period after your subscription lapses before Final Draft deletes your files. That's the good news. However, the Terms do not require Final Draft to notify you before deletion happens . The language puts the burden entirely on you  "you will have thirty (30) days from the lapse date to preserve your files." There is no contractual obligation for them to send a warning email at day 25, or day 29, or at all. The clock starts running whether or not you know it. If you cancel your subscription and forget about it, miss a payment and assume it'll sort itself out, or let a free trial expire during a busy production period, your files could be permanently gone before you realize the timer was running. 2. Is There a Grace Period to Export Files? Yes  30 days, explicitly stated in the Terms. Section 6 adds that Final Draft will use "commercially reasonable efforts" to allow you to export or transition your content during that window. That phrase  "commercially reasonable efforts"  is worth understanding. It's standard legal language, but it's meaningfully weaker than a guarantee. It means Final Draft will try, but it doesn't legally obligate them to ensure the export actually works. If the platform has a technical issue during your 30-day window, that language gives them significant cover. Our advice is that you don't wait until your subscription is about to lapse to export. Export regularly, as a habit, to storage you control. 3. Does This Apply to Cloud Storage Only  or to Your Local Files Too? This is the most nuanced and most misunderstood part of the policy. The answer is that it depends on where your files are live, but local users are not fully in the clear either. The deletion clauses in the Terms specifically reference "files in your Final Draft account" and "Final Draft Vault"  that is cloud storage. Final Draft cannot remotely delete files sitting on your local hard drive or device. Those files are yours. However, the End User License Agreement contains a separate concern for locally installed software. It states that "an online connection, a Final Draft account, and registration with a unique code may be required to use the Software." In plain terms, even if your script is saved locally as an .fdx file, Final Draft's license management system may require you to authenticate an active, paid license before the software will open it. Your local file doesn't get deleted. But if your license lapses, you may be locked out of opening that file in Final Draft  which is a functional loss even if it's not a literal deletion. You would need either an active subscription or an alternative application that can read .fdx files to access your own work. The key takeaway is that Cloud users face permanent deletion after 30 days. Local users face potential lockout. Either way, the safest move is to keep your scripts in a universally readable format  like .pdf or .fountain  in addition to your .fdx files. Why This Matters More When You're Building IP For filmmakers who are pitching, packaging projects, or developing work toward festival submission or streamer deals, the stakes around file access are higher than they might appear. A script in active development is an asset. It may already be attached to a director, have a letter of intent from a producer, or be part of a pitch package you're circulating. Losing access to that script  even temporarily  during a crucial window could affect relationships, deadlines, and deals. The Terms make clear that Final Draft bears no liability for any of this. Their maximum financial responsibility if something goes wrong on their end is $100 or three months of fees, whichever is greater. The platform is provided "as is," with no guarantees that content will be secure, that the service won't experience outages, or that your files will be available when you need them. None of that means Final Draft is a bad tool. It means the legal structure places all the risk on you, which is standard for software companies. The appropriate response is to treat your scripts like what they are  intellectual property with real value  and protect them accordingly. Auto-Renewal and the 7-Day Refund Window Final Draft subscriptions auto-renew by default, and the updated Terms are emphatic about it  cancellation instructions appear in all-caps multiple times. Annual plans carry a 7-day refund window from the date of purchase or renewal. After 7 days, the payment is non-refundable, though your access continues through the subscription period. If your plan started with a free trial, the 7-day window begins when the trial ends  not when you originally enrolled. Monthly plans are non-refundable in any circumstance. Cancel to stop future charges, but the current month is gone. You can cancel via a support ticket at finaldraft.com/support  or by self-canceling in your account settings. Cancellations must reach Final Draft by 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on the applicable deadline. If you signed up through Final Draft Go on iOS, all of this is irrelevant to you. Refunds and cancellations go through Apple not Final Draft. The Class Action Waiver The updated Terms require you to waive your right to join a class action lawsuit against Final Draft. Any dispute must be brought individually. For claims under $10,000, either party can opt for binding arbitration  conducted by phone, online, or written submission. Larger disputes go to Los Angeles County courts under California law. There's also a one-year statute of limitations on all claims. After that, your right to pursue any legal action is permanently barred, regardless of what happened. Class actions matter because they're often the only practical path when a company's practices harm many users in ways that are real but individually too small to justify solo litigation. Under these Terms, that option is off the table. What the Terms Say About Ownership Final Draft is explicit about owning your scripts. The company makes no claim to your creative content. The platform does reserve the right to scan content for viruses, malware, and legal compliance. Their Privacy Policy ( finaldraft.com/company/legal/privacy-statement ) governs what else they collect and how it's used, worth reading separately if data privacy is a concern for projects in early development. One additional clause to note is that any feedback or suggestions you submit through the platform  feature requests, ideas, bug reports  can be used by Final Draft "for any purpose without attribution, accounting or compensation to you." Practical Checklist for Our Readers If you're a cloud/Vault user: Back up all scripts outside Final Draft today  Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, local hard drive, all of it. Set a calendar reminder 2 weeks before your subscription renews or expires. Export a copy of every active project after every major revision. If you're on a locally installed license: Keep .pdf or .fountain copies of your scripts in addition to .fdx files. Understand that license authentication may be required to open your files even locally. For everyone: Know your refund window (7 days for annual plans). Understand that Final Draft's liability is capped at $100 if something goes wrong on their end. Any legal claims must be filed within one year and must be brought individually. The full Terms of Service are at finaldraft.com/company/legal/terms-of-service and the EULA is at finaldraft.com/company/legal/eula . Black Film Wiree Resources  covers industry tools, contracts, and business practices affecting Black filmmakers. Have a document you want us to break down? Reach out to the editorial team.