COLOGNE, Germany — For the first time, the Africa XChange Summit joined the lineup at the Film Festival Cologne this week, bringing together African filmmakers, producers, tech entrepreneurs, and investors for two days of conversations about the continent’s fast-growing creative economy.
The event, held Oct. 15–16, offered a platform for African innovators to showcase new ideas, explore business models, and build bridges with global audiences.
The summit opened Wednesday night with the Nigerian feature film My Father’s Shadow, a semi-autobiographical drama by director Akinola Davies Jr. The film — the first Nigerian title ever selected for competition at the Cannes International Film Festival — has since been chosen by the United Kingdom as its Oscar submission for Best International Feature Film.
The story follows two brothers, Akin and Remi, played by Godwin and Chibuike Marvellous Egbo, as their father drives them from their rural home to Lagos amid the unrest surrounding Nigeria’s 1993 elections. What begins as an ordinary journey becomes a defining day for both the family and the nation. Davies blends a child’s point of view with the turbulence of history, crafting what he has called “a love letter to Lagos.”
A booming creative frontier
By Thursday, discussions turned from cinema to the wider landscape of Africa’s creative industries — including film, gaming, technology, and finance — and how they are reshaping the continent’s economic future. Speakers highlighted the rising global demand for African talent and content, especially among a young, digitally connected population.
Demographics, digitalization, and a growing start-up culture are fueling optimism. Nigeria’s “Nollywood” remains the most visible example: producing roughly 2,500 films each year, it has become the world’s second-largest film industry after India’s Bollywood and ahead of Hollywood in output.
The sector, according to a UNESCO report, could generate more than 20 million jobs across Africa if its full potential is realized. Much of that growth is tied to digital tools and online distribution, which have opened global markets to African creators.
“The creative industry is one of the most dynamic sectors on the African continent,” said Philipp Hoffmann, Managing Director of Rushlake Media, one of the event’s organizers. “And Africans’ growing self-confidence is justified. They are actively taking their future into their own hands.”
He added, “In Germany, this is still too rarely recognized. It’s time for that to change.”
Beyond aid: toward equal partnership
Participants agreed that Africa’s creative boom is not just an artistic movement but an economic one — and that meaningful collaboration with Europe must go beyond development aid. What the continent needs, they argued, is equal access to global markets and financial resources.
“It’s often young creative people who come up with their own ideas and new solutions to local challenges,” Hoffmann said. “That’s far more successful than importing familiar models from the Western world.”
The Africa XChange Summit was organized by Rushlake Media in partnership with the production company Die Gesellschaft DGS, with programming curated by renowned British-Nigerian film curator Nadia Denton. The conference was supported by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and the Film Festival Cologne.
“With this conference, we want to put African countries in the spotlight,” Hoffmann explained. “The African creative industry should get the visibility and resources it needs to reach its full potential.”
Rushlake Media, which operates out of Cologne and Nairobi, has built a reputation for helping African content reach international platforms — a mission the summit echoed throughout its sessions.
