Mildred Okwo Has Called For A Rise In Professionalism In Nollywood 

The director believes that mediocrity is glorified in the profession.

By Omotayo Olutekunbi

Mildred Okwo, the director of ‘La Femme Anjola,’ has spoken out about the ‘lack of professionalism in the sector.’

In a recent interview with Punch, the filmmaker addressed the problem, stating that more practitioners needed to be trained on the filmmaking and business processes.

“I want the level of professionalism among practitioners to increase a hundred fold. We are now dealing with global companies such as Netflix and Amazon. Those companies will need to work with people who understand the art and science of filmmaking,” Okwo said.

“Mediocrity won’t get us to the top of the film-making food chain, and it will take everyone working to increase their knowledge to reach this goal.”

The acclaimed filmmaker also revealed her displeasure with Nollywood distribution, characterizing it as still in its “basic state.”

“People who invest money in films want to know how to get that money back. For now, cinema distribution in Nigeria is at a primitive stage, in my humble opinion. Not only do we not have enough cinemas, the ones we even have, our film distributors are unable to aggressively market to them or even monitor sales and promotions.

“That means if figures come in from Jos, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Benin or Enugu, there is no one working for your film distributor to authenticate these figures. They are relying solely on what the cinema owners say and that doesn’t sit well with any sane producer.”

Remember that in 2021, the director made waves when she called out a major film distribution corporation for pulling her picture ‘La Femme Anjola’ from theaters.

Okwo is known for films such as “The Meeting,” “La Femme Anjola,” and “Suru L’ere,” among others.