It’s probably not an idea that most of you filmmakers have considered, but maybe there’s something to be learned here, or a foundation has been set for others to build upon.
Nigerian producer-director-actor, Kunle Afolayan’s latest work, the drama-thriller “The CEO” is set to hit cinemas in Nigeria on July 15th, 2016, and in cinemas across continental Africa later in the year.
Before that, the filmmaker took an unconventional approach, premiering the film in-flight aboard an Air France trip from Lagos, Nigeria to Paris last night. The in-flight premiere precedes the NollywoodWeek Paris film festival (June 2-5), where the film will be spotlighted.
The special premiere began with a Red Carpet show at the Check-In Counter at the Muritala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, which the local media covered.
“For our sponsors, partners, the cast and crew of ‘The CEO’ and those accredited to attend NollywoodWeek Paris, the fun continues with a Cocktail Party at the Boarding Gate. We will run a red carpet into the plane. Thereafter, the movie will be screened onboard the plane where other passengers will partake in the show. It is going to be a complete event show with the usual razzmatazz. Just imagine an After Party happening 35,000ft to 40,000ft above the sea level. It is sure going to be a unique experience,” the filmmaker said prior to the premiere flight.
It most certainly sounds like it would indeed be a unique experience all around. It’s a curious approach that I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out and what, if anything, it leads to for other filmmakers looking for alternative marketing/publicity/screening strategies.
Watch the AFP’s footage of the event immediately below, and continue reading after it.
Set on a beautiful beach resort on the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria, “The CEO” follows five top executives from across Africa who are dispatched on a one-week leadership retreat by a multinational telecommunications firm to determine who gets selected as the new CEO. Things go awry when, one by one, the executives are eliminated in sudden death circumstances, with the finger pointing to the last two remaining executive as prime suspects.
The film stars some of the best from the continent like Angelique Kidjo, Wale Ojo, Nico Panagio, Lala Kemi Akidoju, Fatym Layachi, Aurelie Eliam, Hilda Dokubo as well as Jimmy Jean-Louis (the Haitian-American actor).
“The Ceo” follows Afolayan’s last film, the serial killer film set against Nigeria’s Independence as a backdrop, “October 1” which was profiled on this blog last year.
Prior to that, Afolayan directed the romantic-comedy “Phone Swap,” a film we also covered, which screened internationally, in 2012, and is available via digital platforms currently.
And the film he made before that, the horror/thriller, “Araromire” (“The Figurine”), is also now available for streaming online on streaming sites like Ndani.TV, which features primarily Nollywood cinema – or what the founders call “the best of New Nollywood as well as the classics.”
Continuing his efforts to produce films in Nigeria that can compete on the international film stage, specifically at an acclaimed festival like Cannes, Afoloyan has a body of work that chronicles his growth as a filmmaker over the years – films that are eagerly anticipated in Nigeria, but now more-so than ever before, are being released and are finding audiences internationally.
The trailer for “The CEO” follows below:
