Nollywood is a category that covers films that are made in Nigeria, by Nigerians and largely for a Nigerian audience. Films such as “Half of A Yellow Sun” is not a Nollywood film. It was written by a Nigeria about Nigeria and has some of the members of the cast as Nigerians, but the commission and the budget and the main actors are foreign which makes the film non-Nigerian. Shareman Media and Slate Films are not Nigerian production firms so their work cannot be passed as Nollywood. At best, films like “Half of A Yellow Sun” and the coming “Americanah” are half-Nigerian and when they flop in the box office like “Half of A Yellow Sun,” they are fully foreign.
By Nollywood, we mean the professionally-made Nigerian movies, made in English for the cinemas. We all know of the cheap direct-to-video movies that make up the bulk of the industry and we are glad to exclude them. They find their ways into Youtube and in African Magic Epic. Let them remain there. Also excluded are the one-hour movies commissioned by M-net which should mean they are quality films and they are mostly of great picture quality but they mostly are extremely low-budgeted and too brief to be called a feature-length movie.
Of course everything Nigerian on TV is Nollywood but not every one of them is for us. Many players in the industry including Ramsey Nouah have spoken of his earnest hope for the revolution of Nollywood through the for-cinema movies also tagged the New Nollywood. At this site, we support them solidly. Join us to review only Cinema movies. Contact Choice on editor@heavyng.com or heavyng247@gmail.com and we can talk.
