The initiative will see selected African filmmakers travel to South Korea for intensive script development residencies aimed at fostering cross-cultural storytelling and international collaboration.
By Adedamola Jones Adedayo
A newly launched African–Korean filmmaker residency programme is underway through a partnership between Seoul-based production company Flix Oven and Continental Entertainment, the Afrocentric production outfit founded by Nigerian entertainment executive Ozi Menakaya. The initiative will see selected African filmmakers travel to South Korea for intensive script development residencies aimed at fostering cross-cultural storytelling and international collaboration.
As announced at the Cannes Film Market, the residency programme welcomes Nigerian indie filmmaker C.J. Obasi as the first cohort. Obasi will travel to Seoul for a month-long commitment to a new undisclosed feature that is poised to create a bridge between African and Korean cultures, with a theatrical release in the works. The feature will have legendary American actor and filmmaker Morgan Freeman and producer Lori McCreary as executive producers under the aegis of Revelations Entertainment.
Obasi, the programme’s inaugural beneficiary, is known for Mami Wata (2023), the first-ever Nigerian film to premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance. Shot in black-and-white monochrome, the film won the Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the festival and was Nigeria’s submission for the 96th Oscars (Best International Feature Film category), though it missed out on eventual nomination.
For Menakaya, the initiative similarly aligns with the wider vision behind Continental Entertainment, the management and production company he launched in 2024 after years at the global entertainment agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
Conceived as a platform for advancing African storytelling through international creative and commercial exchange, the company’s current collaboration with Flix Oven positions it at the forefront of a budding wave of African–Asian co-productions, with Obasi’s residency serving as an early indication of its ambitions.