By Pascal Oparada
Nigerian star actress, Genevieve Nnaji is at loggerheads with FilmOne for allegedly frustrating her effort by refusing to show her movie, Lion Heart.
She accused them of pretending to support Nollywood while at the same time scuttling the efforts of those in the industry.
“It is sad to discover that the very people who pose as Nollywood supporters and promoters of their content are the very same people frustrating the efforts of filmmakers,” Nnaji said.
She pointed fingers of blame at FilmOne for refusing to distribute Lion Heart.
“FilmOne, one of the major film cinema distributors, has categorically refused to distribute Lionheart, primarily because they have no stake in it. They are currently invested in a couple of movies showing in the cinemas and want to protect their assets at all cost. Monopolising the market this season is their strategy to recouping their investment.
“Silverbird agreed to exclusively exhibit Lionheart across their cinemas and that was good enough for me. Like I said, having you watch this movie was my primary objective, not making more money. I’m an artist who wants to display her work to the people the art was created for.
“But, as soon as the announcement was made on Friday about the release, the “powers that be” of distribution and marketing were not having it. They proceeded to arm-twist Silverbird cinemas to backing out of our agreement by threatening to boycott them in the future.
“It’s like 2004 all over again. When we were all banned from the industry. Except this is not 2004. This is 2018,” the statement quoted her as saying.”
But Patrick Lee, chairman of the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), in a statement said Lion Heart team did not follow the calender as the association has busy schedule during this Christmas season.
He said the team did not follow the process involved in listing a film in cinemas.
“We expect the movie to come from a licenced distributor, we expect the movie to be given adequate run time in the cinemas before it is officially released on other platforms,” he said.
“And also for our cinemas to be provided with adequate notice for the inclusion of the movie in an increasingly crowded calendar.
“It is clear from the approach taken by the Lionheart team that these processes were not adhered to and most of our members rightly refused to take the movie.
“It is also important to note that this movie had been signed up by Netflix months ago, thereby giving Genevieve’s team ample time to secure a spot on the calendar.
“An option they did not take until quite recently thereby ensuring the possibility of the movie not being shown by cinemas during their preferred date.
“Genevieve has starred and produced movies for cinema exhibition in the past so should be familiar with the way the industry works which is why this is a cause for concern for us in the cinema association.
“Finally it’s worth pointing out that other movies such as Chief Daddy, KOB and Merry Men had all been slated from early March this year.
“Mo Abudu, AY and Kemi Adetiba who are industry compatriots of Genevieve’s followed the right approach by scheduling early for cinema release. It’s not fair that they may now possibly have their screen times reduced because of the rushed inclusion of Lionheart in the cinemas.
“We at the cinema association are also not pleased about the attacks in the statement on some of our members and the sweeping generalisations the statement makes.”
‘Lionheart’ had successful screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and Marrakech, Morroco and will be available on Netflix in January 2019,” the statement read.
According to Genevieve, Lion Heart is a story of Adaeze, who steps to the challenge in male-dominated environment and wants to run her father’s company when he is forced to step aside due to health challenges.
Genevieve has been promoting the movie to her 4 million followers on Instagram.
