Netflix Ramps-up African Stories with Exciting Titles
Ferdinand Ekechukwu
It was a gathering of talent, filmmakers and press from South Africa and Nigeria at a recent Netflix exclusive preview of its programming for the year end 2022 and the start of next year 2023. The event, ‘See What’s Next Africa’ content, showcase to spotlight its increased investment in Africa’s rich heritage of storytelling through exciting new projects that span a diverse range of genres and formats that will be available in 190 countries.
The event presented a diverse range of best-in-class exciting African titles coming to the streamer soon. Among the titles are: Ludik (ZA, August 26). The Brave Ones (ZA, September 16). Kings of Queenstown (ZA November 4). Elesin Oba, The King’s Horseman (NG, November 4). Anikulapo (NG, September 30). Blood & Water (ZA, November). How to Ruin Christmas: The Baby Shower (ZA, December 16). South African film iNumber Number: Fool’s Gold (ZA).
Netflix also revealed a wide variety of licensed films and series that will make their debuts on Netflix this year. These include Office Invasion (ZA, August 10), Lockdown (NG, August 5), The Razz Guy (NG, August 12), Wild is The Wind (ZA, October 28), and Disconnect 2 (KE, December). During the first half of 2022, Netflix released an exceptional slate of content from the sub-Saharan Africa region across multiple genres.
The pan-African reality show Young, Famous & African, the South African action film Silverton Siege, the South African soapy drama series Savage Beauty, Netflix’s first Kenyan licensed branded series Country Queen, the first Netflix-owned Nigerian series Blood Sisters, a riveting South African crime documentary Senzo: Murder Of A Soccer Star and most recently, Justice Served.
To further delight fans of Nigerian stories, Netflix announced bringing back 31 fan favorite’s films from Nigeria which will be launched every day throughout the month of August. Netflix also reaffirmed its commitment to reality by confirming the return of ‘Young Famous and African’ (pan-Africa) which will start production soon to showcase some of Africa’s biggest stars as they go about their everyday fabulous lives.
As part of its ongoing commitment to creating sustainable relationships with African storytellers, it disclosed a multi-project partnership with acclaimed South African filmmaker Mandlakayise Water Dube. This partnership joins other multi-title agreements between the company and African creatives including Mo Abudu and Kunle Afolayan. The event also gave a glimpse into the progress of the various projects being created by emerging filmmakers from the various initiatives the company introduced in the past year.
Dorothy Ghettuba, Netflix Director of Series in Africa, said: “We believe that Africa is one of the major creative centres for great storytelling that resonates around the world so it only makes sense for us to increase our investment with our slate with an even more exciting slate. We’re proud to continue creating global opportunities for the talented creatives of this great continent and sharing their authentic stories with our members in Africa and around the world.”
