Top 12 Global Film markets and why Nollywood is next.

There’s a movie competition, after which there’s a movie market. One is a tradition social gathering, and the opposite is a commerce present for commerce. For many years, Nollywood has mastered the social gathering, changing into a world cultural power.

Now, it’s time to personal the commerce present.

To know the huge alternative forward, let’s take a fast tour of the world’s most vital movie markets after which study the laborious knowledge that proves Nigeria is able to be a part of them.

Earlier than we begin the tour, let’s be clear. As Dennis Rowe, former director of the European Movie Market, defined on the latest AFCM Info Seminar, a movie market is a business-to-business (B2B) occasion. Whereas a competition is for the general public, a market is for business professionals to do three key issues:

• Make Offers: Promote the rights to indicate a movie in numerous international locations.

• Safe Financing: Pitch new concepts to buyers to safe funding.

• Construct Networks: Make the connections that result in future tasks.

It’s the place a script turns into a sellable product.

1. Marché du Movie (Cannes, France): The world’s greatest and most prestigious market. It makes use of the glamour of the Cannes Movie Pageant to draw over 15,000 folks for high-stakes enterprise.

2. American Movie Market (AFM) (Los Angeles, USA): A pure enterprise powerhouse. For one week, manufacturing corporations flip lodge suites into workplaces to make offers—over $1 billion price for impartial movies yearly.

3. European Movie Market (EFM) (Berlin, Germany): As the primary main market of the yr, Berlin’s EFM units the tone for international tendencies, attracting over 12,000 members to purchase, promote, and uncover new expertise.

4. Hong Kong Worldwide Movie & TV Market (FILMART): The biggest market in Asia, serving because the important gateway to the huge movie industries in China and Southeast Asia.

5. Asian Contents & Movie Market (ACFM) (Busan, South Korea): A key hub for locating the perfect of Korean and pan-Asian content material, from motion pictures to TV sequence.

6. Ventana Sur (Buenos Aires, Argentina): The premier market for Latin American movies, so influential that it is co-directed by the identical crew that runs the market at Cannes.

7. Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant (TIFF): The important launching pad for any movie attempting to interrupt into the profitable North American market.

8. Sundance Movie Pageant (Park Metropolis, USA): The world’s premier marketplace for discovering, launching, and promoting impartial movies.

9. Scorching Docs (Toronto, Canada): An important market on the earth devoted completely to documentary movies.

10. MIPCOM (Cannes, France): A large international market that focuses particularly on shopping for and promoting tv and broadcast content material.

11. Annecy Worldwide Animation Movie Pageant (MIFA) (Annecy, France): The primary international market for animation creators, producers, and distributors.

12. Clermont-Ferrand Worldwide Brief Movie Pageant (France): The world’s largest and most vital movie market devoted solely to brief movies.

Nollywood is now not only a native business; it’s a world financial powerhouse. The information proves it’s greater than able to host its personal worldwide market.

• The Billion-Greenback Engine: Nollywood at the moment contributes almost ₦2 trillion to Nigeria’s GDP. By 2025, the business is projected to be price a staggering $14.8 billion. An business this large does not simply deserve a market; it wants one to handle its development.

• We Personal Our Residence Turf: That is a very powerful quantity. In 2024, for the primary time in historical past, Nigerian movies made up over 50% of our personal home field workplace income, beating out Hollywood imports. This proves to international buyers that we now have a secure, worthwhile house market, making investing in our movies a a lot safer guess.

• The Lagos Benefit: Lagos is the undisputed coronary heart of Nollywood. The town alone accounts for over 53% of your complete nation’s field workplace, making it the one logical hub for a world market.

• The Streamer Impact: Large investments from platforms like Netflix and Prime Video served as a world “proof of idea”—they confirmed the world there’s a enormous worldwide urge for food for Nigerian tales. Now that some streamers are scaling again, a movie market is the right resolution to fill that financing hole by connecting our filmmakers with a various vary of recent buyers from world wide.

The case is obvious. Nollywood has the financial scale, the huge manufacturing quantity, the confirmed native demand, and the validated international enchantment. All of the elements are right here.

The AFRIFF Movie and Content material Market (AFCM) is the strategic subsequent step. It is the infrastructure we have to remedy our greatest challenges—like piracy and distribution—by creating a proper, skilled, and worthwhile pipeline for our movies to succeed in the world.

For years, we have needed to journey to Cannes, Berlin, and Los Angeles to do enterprise. Now, with the AFCM, we’re constructing our personal desk in Lagos. And the world is invited to have a seat.