Kunle Afolayan: I Make Films for Nigerian History, Not Nigerian Cinema

Kunle Afolayan is explaining why he turned down three international co-production deals in 2024. They were not making Nigerian films, he says. They were making films set in Nigeria. There is a difference, and it matters.

On the Streaming Relationship

The platforms need us, he says. They needed content that felt genuinely African. But the negotiating posture of the Nigerian industry has been the posture of someone who needs the platforms more than the platforms need them. That was a mistake.

I make films because I believe they will still matter in thirty years. That is a different calculation.