On Wednesday night, Nollywood stars strutted the red carpet at the Netflix premiere of its first original series in Nigeria, ‘Blood Sisters’.
KAMPALA | LIFESTYLE UGANDA (http://lifestyleuganda.com/) — It was a night of glitz and glimmer Wednesday as Nigeria’s movie industry stars, also known as Nollywood, strutted the red carpet at the launch of Netflix’s first Nigerian Original series, “Blood Sisters.”.
EbonyLife Studios, one of the most prominent Nigerian production companies, organized the premiere with the theme ‘Red and Fugitive’ and a host of Nollywood stars were present to support the show.
Nollywood veteran stars, including Kate Henshaw, Uche Jombo, Ramsey Nouah, Segun Arinze and Joke Silva, appear in the drama ‘Blood Sisters’.
“Blood Sisters” also stars newcomers Nancy Isime and Ini Dima-Okojie as friends in a crime thriller that revolves around “two friends, a dark secret, and an unforgiving family,” according to Netflix.
At the premiere, Nigeria’s Minister for Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, praised the launch as proof of the creative industry’s growth in Nigeria.
“It’s not easy to put your movie, talk less of a series on Netflix. this is one of the clear indications that our creative industry is going places,” Mohammed said at the premiere.
Mo Abudu, the founder of EbonyLife Studios, says the series was filmed during the Lagos pandemic, describing it as an “exciting and unique experience.”
Along with Blood Sisters, Abudu’s other work with Netflix includes the acclaimed film “Oloture,” which was adapted from Wole Soyinka’s “Death and the King’s Horseman.”.
Nigeria’s movie market is in the sights of other streaming platforms, which have been eyeing Nigeria’s multimillion-dollar film industry.
Streaming service Amazon Prime Video recently secured licensing deals with Nigerian filmmakers Inkblot Productions and Anthill Studios, allowing Nigerian movies to be streamed on the Amazon platform.
Amazon has agreed to produce Original series and films with African partners including Nigerian and other African countries, the company informed CNN.
Nigeria is considered to be Africa’s most prolific filmmaking hub; according to the country’s statistics office, thousands of films are produced in Nigeria every year.
