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Prime Video’s African About-Face, Netflix’s IP Frenzy and Why African Producers Are Pondering ‘What Comes Next’ as Streamers Shift Course
While Africa’s screen industries have benefited from streaming investment, many say they’re at the mercy of decisions made in far-off C-suites.
“It’s made a huge difference,” adds Stan Joseph, whose Ochre Moving Pictures — which inked a deal with Netflix last year to adapt multiple books for the streaming service alongside filmmaker Akin Omotoso (“Rise”) — recently launched its crime drama “Soon Comes Night” on the platform. Netflix’s recent shift toward IP-driven fare will see a host of sequels and spin-offs hitting the streamer in the months to come — Kunle Afolayan’s “Aníkúlápó” and EbonyLife Studios’ “Òlòtūré” are among the popular titles that will return in some form — but some creators rue the push toward genre-based box-ticking and commercial-leaning IP that doesn’t incentivize creative risks. Prime Video’s Africa about-face — “perturbing,” “alarming,” “devastating,” according to attendees at this week’s Joburg Film Festival — represents a dramatic example of how easily a tech company with a multitrillion-dollar valuation can upend an emerging market; all it takes is a few swipes of the pen in the name of a “pivot” or “rebalance” to dash hopes and scrap deals months or years in the making.
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