All this fuss about nollywood being the bomb in the limelight in terms of film production in africa, you have to hand it over to south africa.

Two years in a roll their films were nominated for academy awards ( yesterday and tsosti )and "nillywood " basks in the euphoria of quantity never quality.

I must give it to nollywood for making some good flicks on shoe string budgets and use of digital cameras, but coming to professionalism quality south africa got to have it.

I agreee

Go and ask Jamaicans, Ugadans, Namibia and other nationals, Nigeria is the best in Africa.


We are the biggest video market in the world.

When many movies are acted like plays -- taking two weeks or so to film? We output a lot of nonsense with the focus being on people who try to talk like Americans and drive flashy cars. The so-called actors and actresses give very lack-lustre performances.

That's not true. Most Nollywood films I've watched have been distinctly and regretably Nigerian. Nollywood is not at all an American wannabe industry; Nigerian films are, unfortunately, faithful to our culture.

Unfortunately?

Yeah. Our culture is too primitive. Example: there are educated Nigerian mothers who will tell their daughters who are being abused and almost killed by their husbands in front of their children that "suuru" (patience) is the answer. We see that in the movies too. The movies reflect the primitive state of our culture.

The south african movie industry has better cameras ad stuff. but the story line isnt as good as Nollywood

What story lines do we have in Nollywood? When a story line is predictable what do you call it? Mediocre!

south africa is as bland as salad.

Nollywood IMO, still lack good sound quality (no coordination in camera movement and sound) and better imaging in most of their movies. But i think they're getting there. And oh, i can't stand most of their court scenes. I thought the contemporary way to address a jugde is 'your honour' and not 'my lord'.  And whats with all the wigs and gown them lawyers wear. yuck. Maybe i've been watching a lot of Law and Order.

Well you need to give the South African flicks some bravo, the last time I checked, a south african movie won an oscar in 2006,

Nigerian movies are ANNOYING, still in the stone age, shooting movies with camcorders,dang they need to grow up not everyone can produce/direct a movie, they dont understand that

I have to agree (not with all my mind of course).

Nigerian movies are like QUANTITY, not quality. They make like 300 useless movies every 2 weeks. But you see this south-african movies, they do one movie, and it's like BAM. When a movie wins an oscar, please tell me wat else describes awesome. No Nigerian movie ever won "kids choice award"!

Nigerian movies are improving, but uhmm, i getting pretty sick of "university girls movies", "wicked mother in law movies", "aristo papa movies", and other movies that are re-make of older ones.

I guess you guys understand why the South African films may do better. Their industry has spanned ages, but Nollywood only just started. While most south african films are highly funded to show flicks of suffering blacks and of those dying of AIDS, Nollywood works on thin budgets but not doctored to show only AID, poverty related films.

I think we should give kudos to our movie industry and I think they are the best in Africa.
They might not get all right but still they are the best.
If they get govt. assistance like their counterparts in other countries they will do better than them.

I do watch South Africa movies, with no sentiments, I don't see them equating ours.
I believe they equate Ghana in terms of play and story.

This s like comparing Bollywood and Hollywood!!!!

Hollywood = QUALITY
Bollywood = QUANTITY of crap

Patritism aside, SA movies are better than Naija movies. We just seem to have enough to satisfy our taste which is becoming more and more crap.

Storyline-wise oops!!!WE HAVE NO STORYLINE. I bet some of our movies don't even have proper scripts. They just have the Director's idea of what the scene would look like and the actors use their own words. That's wny our movies are overflowing with cliche and the next 3 scenes are always predictable.

Only a few studios particularly MAINFRAME can be said to have the intersting in taking time to produce quality.But they are rare.

I mean, I can easily name 4 South African movies that beat all our movies hands down and produced to European standards (Sarafina, That Gods must be crazy, Yesterday, and Tsotsi)

Make we no lie, Sollywood beat NOLLYWOOD!!!

We realy must give kudos to the home video industry( how they came to be named Nollyhood is so embarassing) for at least giving some people jobs. As much as I love Nigeria, i cannot stand most home videos. I have this unfair notion that the more of it one watches, the lower one's IQ becomes. Creativity is totally ignored and as far as technicalities are concerned, the Sout Africans are ahead by some miles.

There are very few good contents in our home videos; the scripts were not the results of good thinking.

About two months ago, I was in a cafe where the inside of the cafe was being used for recording a home video.I was so shocked when the director moved the camera and crew to our area and co-opted us into extras without our permission. The receptionist in the cafe was the same they used in the film.No information; no excuse-they just shot and left.

There are few one can stomach though mainly the works of Tunde Kelani,Amaka Igwe,Tade Ogidan and whenever Ego Boyo decides to shoot a film.(she is married to one of Oando's founders)

I mean, I can easily name 4 South African movies that beat all our movies hands down and produced to European standards (Sarafina, That Gods must be crazy, Yesterday, and Tsotsi)

Please add Mr Bones -- that one scooped awards.

What matters in entertainment is not "technology" or quality". what matters is how you make people feel the feelings they want to feel, and in this respect Nollywood movies are up there. They serve typical, less exposed, Nigerians very well.

what is mr admin saying here? technology and quality matters a lot in movies, instead of criticizing these people that are only after some quick bucks and not doing nice movies, we are here supporting them. if we mount pressure on them they'll do good movies because the talents are there

Seun:

What matters in entertainment is not "technology" or quality". what matters is how you make people feel the feelings they want to feel, and in this respect Nollywood movies are up there. They serve typical, less exposed, Nigerians very well.

lmao @ Seun. how can you say "What matters in entertainment is not "technology" or quality?" the same technologies and quality are factors that make up a good movie, not stereotyped bullshit produced in Nigeria. Nollywood my ass. if what matters is how the movies make people feel the feelings they want to feel, then what's the use of Nollywood as an entertainment industry? Even a blind man can see the heap of trash being produced everyday.All stereotypical nonsense exhibited to the Nigerian, to the extent that the whole movie is predictable and not worth a watch. if there's one thing Nollywood beats South Africa with, it's QUANTITY not QUALITY.

and oh, one more thing, Wesley Snipes (when he came to Nigeria) said Nigeria does not make movies, we make Home Videos

That's true. Looking at the posters of Nigerian movies, you can already deduce what's going to happen. They're that bad.

Nigerian Movies,

Not me, in fact, I dont think we can say we have a Movie Industry, its all crap, the same actors, the same lines, the same everything. 300 movies in two weeks = a whole lot of crap. Anyway, at least we are following the foot-steps of Bollywood.

Yes Zahymaka, the posters tell you the whole story, the titles are the most anonying to me, especially if its a story about a man getting another mans wife, everything is spiritualized? too much of juju and evil power. My question is: Cant these peeps just act out something else. Ive not watched too many South African movies, but the few nigerian ones that ive watched, im already tired of it.

Zahymaka:

Please add Mr Bones -- that one scooped awards.

Mr. Bones was the WORST movie ever! When I went to Naija last year, my litte cousins kept going ON and ON about the movie, and I could not last 20 minutes watching that movie.

Did it REALLY win awards or is that an April Fool Joke?

Also, was the main actor an American? I did not notice a SA accent?

Depends on your tastes. Yes it did win [b]Best South African Movie of the Year [/b]the year it was released [I think 2004]. And yes, Leon Schuster is a South African.

lol
@ ynot, you have indeed been watching too much law and order

nigerian law is partly based on english common law, hence my lord, the wigs etc etc
which the us does not have
l believe its like that in england and australia

i just looooooooooooooove sarafina!

'freedom is coming tomorrow!'

Ohh i see. Do you know if they have the jury system in Nigeria? Never seen any in all the movies i've watched.

Yeah Sarafina is great. I love the 'Free Nelson Mandela' song.

Yeah. Our culture is too primitive. Example: there are educated Nigerian mothers who will tell their daughters who are being abused and almost killed by their husbands in front of their children that "suuru" (patience) is the answer. We see that in the movies too. The movies reflect the primitive state of our culture.

this is clearly someone that has never lived outside of his country of has any self respect for his culture. the same stupid advice that you say nigerian mothers give their daughters is given to american daughters by thier mothers. it has nothign to do with primitive culture, but stupidity. OJ simpson's wife was given the same advice by her family and she ended up dead.

nevertheless while i pray the quality of nigerian movie production improves, it has instrintic appeal becasue the stories are entertaining. even countries like ivory coast and senegal make better technical movies, but no one bothers to watch them because they are boring. though south africa makes good technical movies, and have won oscars, they are not that popular, despite the oscar tag. I hav had people from trinidad, jamaica, haiti, senegal, etc send me nigeria movies because they absolutely love them. Nigerian movies are akin to bollywood flicks, in that they appeal to a certain taste, one that seeks enertainmnt, moreso than merely technical skills.

Hopefully in time we improve the technical aspect, but don't lose the heart of story telling ability. think of it in terms of our literature. nigerians know how to tell a story. though south africa has more nobel prize winners, more people know of our writers like achebe, soyinka, ekwensi and the rest, and would have a hard time mentioning south african writers or pplacing them on the same level as nigerian writers

I believe the nollywood guys are really doing their best to give Nigerians and the world what they wanna see when it comes to entertainment or would i say movies

lets face it nigerian movie are a reflection of nigeria state lazy people rushing to make fast money and are just putting it out for there nigeirna fan who regreatable like it,if we can combine the resources of 10 movie into one movie we might be look at an academy award,Also nigeria is in the "obasanjo age" no discipline no law no demand no supply just kick and follow any way this is my view

LMAO @ Nigerian movies even appearing in the same sentence as them South African movies. All 'em garbage them money hungry punks put out is trash. Them shyt wack than wack! The whole are a bunch of pathetically recycled stories with irritating sound and video editing, and actors that make me feel like I might just be on par with De Niro or Pacino!

I must say I don't look out or watch 'em but the little scenes I catch every now and them when I visit my sisters(they can't get enough of 'em!!!) just make me class them as pitiful comic - just like Nigerian Politics!

And don't even get me started with Yoruba based ones. They make the english based ones look like "The Godfather". I wasn't surprised at all when I's told some of 'em were made in two weeks. SMFH!!!