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AfroBerlin markets itself as an EFM-related networking site that links African and diaspora businesses and film. 2026 is particularly pertinent since its themes — legacy, access, and systems — explicitly reflect the issues that young Nigerian filmmakers are facing… The panels, which are taken from the official Day One and Day Two programme pages, resemble a checklist of requirements for Nollywood’s next stage…
The 76th edition of Berlinale 2026 arrived in Berlin as a festival and a live debate on what film is for today: art, activism, business, or all three at once. Red carpets, reviewers, crowded public screenings, and the European Film Market (EFM), bustling alongside the festival, were all part of the well-known Berlinale machine. However, as speakers and winners utilised the stage to make political remarks, and the festival itself turned into a contentious civic arena, the edition became overtly fuelled by discussions about speech, geopolitics, and accountability, particularly in relation to Gaza.
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Germany’s festival culture has often embraced African political cinema, memory films, and post-colonial narratives — subjects deeply relevant to Nigeria. In fact, Goethe Institut Nigeria sponsored student filmmakers from the Nigerian National Film Institute (NFI) to the 76th edition of Berlinale this February. Apart from Nigeria, only Burkina Faso also had student filmmakers at the film summit, as part of the workshops at the Berlinale. The importance of 2026 for Nigerian filmmakers, particularly those being trained at the Nigerian Film Institute (NFI), goes beyond the simple statement that “Berlin was big.” Several pipelines converged at the same time, including the official Berlinale submission pathway (also known as “the submit”), industry platforms catering to the diaspora such as AfroBerlin, and professionalisation initiatives focused on Lagos, like the Lagos Business of Film Summit. These pipelines all raised the same issues regarding funding, access, talent pathways, technology, and international cooperation.
The official Berlinale Film Entry process is surprisingly straightforward: complete the form, send in your documents, adhere to deadlines, and wait for a call. The underlying reality, however, is that submission is a craft — a discipline of timing, positioning, and packaging.
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The sheer scale of this process was emphasised by the Berlinale leadership itself, which stated that “more than 8,000 submissions from hundreds of countries” were filtered to put together the 2026 programme. This figure isn’t intended to deter; rather, it is designed to make clear what the “submit” actually entails: a submission into a rigorous selection process, where minor benefits like festival-ready sound, spotless deliverables, reliable producer packaging, and a clear logline and director statement, become crucial.
Berlin rewards preparedness as much as stories. Submission turns into a training regimen that encourages Nigerian filmmakers to develop stronger post-production finishing standards, international-facing marketing language, and pre-production literacy (rights, permissions, chain-of-title).
If “submit” at the Berlinale is the gate, then AfroBerlin is the lobby where map comparisons take place.
AfroBerlin markets itself as an EFM-related networking site that links African and diaspora businesses and film. 2026 is particularly pertinent since its themes — legacy, access, and systems — explicitly reflect the issues that young Nigerian filmmakers are facing.
The panels, which are taken from the official Day One and Day Two programme pages, resemble a checklist of requirements for Nollywood’s next stage:
- Models and case studies of international co-production: funding across borders, treaties, market access, and shared risk.
- Outstanding performances and roles both on and off screen: representation, casting methods, and the frameworks that enable “breakthrough” to be replicated.
- AI, technology, ethics (copyright, ownership, and royalties), audience growth, and cost effectiveness.
- The Writer’s Room: authenticity, international cooperation, and striking a balance between commercial and arthouse.
- Morocco Country Focus: “Gateway to Africa” — shifting from supporting outside production to bolstering industries in the country and the region.
The relationship between Africa and Asia — co-production, distribution channels, and the expansion of the Global South audience.
AfroBerlin’s true gift to NFI filmmakers is its ability to transform the jargon of the global industry — “slates,” “packaging,” “rights,” “windowing,” “audience data,” and “treaties” — into a language that allows African and diaspora creatives to communicate without feeling constrained. The area that proclaims, “Your film is not just a work — it’s an exportable project, with negotiable value,” is symbolic of the antithesis of the lonely submission page.
The first Lagos Business of Cinema Summit was held on 30 January and it centred specifically around “policy, screen, and production.” It was touted as bringing together industry voices for “critical conversations on the business of film in Nigeria,” and it was almost like a call-and-response event.
The broader story is that, in between those high-profile events, Berlin has grown into a hub for industry development (EFM platforms and talent programmes), identity politics and public discourse (Panorama and lectures), and debates around African and diaspora cinema (Forum/Forum Expanded). As early as 2017, the EFM established a specific platform called “Berlinale Africa Hub,” demonstrating that the market side has been working to create long-lasting scaffolding that faces Africa, rather than only celebrating African titles on occasion.
The pattern is evident, even if social media posts are not seen as “official policy documents”: Lagos is creating platforms that resemble those established by marketplaces such as EFM, where business literacy is viewed as creative empowerment, rather than “selling out.”
As a result, the correspondence is nearly architectural when you state “how it corresponded”: Berlin is the international hub where politics, co-production, sales, and status all come together.
Lagos is the local engine room where decisions on employment conditions, guild strength, funding standards, distribution networks, and talent pipelines will be made in order to ensure sustainability.
This is why the coincidence is significant to NFI filmmakers: it points to a new method to become global without having to “escape” Nigeria; instead, you can do so by improving Nigeria’s industry grammar, while maintaining a strong foundation in local output volume and cultural distinctiveness.
Through sections, markets, and talent development programmes, Africa’s relationship with the Berlinale has changed from sporadic “discovery” storylines to something more structured.
One frequently mentioned historical event is the Golden Bear victory of U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (South Africa) in 2005, which was reported at the time to be the first African film to win the top honour. After Mati Diop’s Dahomey won the Golden Bear in 2024, the interest in museums, restitution, and the legacy of empire was rekindled.
The broader story is that, in between those high-profile events, Berlin has grown into a hub for industry development (EFM platforms and talent programmes), identity politics and public discourse (Panorama and lectures), and debates around African and diaspora cinema (Forum/Forum Expanded). As early as 2017, the EFM established a specific platform called “Berlinale Africa Hub,” demonstrating that the market side has been working to create long-lasting scaffolding that faces Africa, rather than only celebrating African titles on occasion.
This is significant for Nigeria in particular, because Nollywood has already demonstrated its popularity and audience size. Berlin has historically provided leverage, which is the capacity to transform cultural power into co-production resources, in better terms, and worldwide distribution that avoids stereotyping the work.
Morocco was featured as the EFM’s 2026 “Country in Focus,” a purposeful international exhibition that aims to elevate Moroccan artists, initiatives, and co-production relationships.
Morocco’s selection as EFM 2026’s “Country in Focus” holds particular symbolic significance, as it was often referred to as the first African nation to do so. Morocco’s prominence and industry involvement at the show were highlighted in the Berlinale/EFM’s own framing.
From a practical standpoint, Morocco offers two models that Nigerian filmmakers can both critique and learn from: first, Morocco as a worldwide production hub (sites, workers, and facilities). Second, Morocco is pushing past service work to have more storytelling power at home and in the region. This is the tension that AfroBerlin’s panel on Morocco refers to as “beyond servicing foreign blockbusters.”
The relevance is controversial for Nigeria because Nollywood already has the domestic engine Morocco is attempting to enhance, but Nigeria may learn from Morocco’s development of international interfaces (incentives, training-to-production pipelines, market awareness, and film commissions). Stated differently, Morocco provides an example of how to institutionalise “access.” One example of industrialising “output” is Nigeria. Combining the two will be the way of the future without sacrificing Nigerian authorship.
The broad takeaway for the Nigerian film business is that “better stories” — of which there are plenty in Nigeria — are not the only thing that will be the next frontier of competition. Better systems include more transparent intellectual property ownership, more robust guild standards, diverse funding, reputable co-production frameworks, and a generation that has been taught to view innovation and business as partners, rather than adversaries.
The relationship between Nigeria and Germany in filmmaking is older and deeper than many assume. It is not just about co-productions — it is about training, archives, aesthetics, and political memory. Arsenal is the component that completes the cycle of archiving and the long-term strategy of Nigerian cinema power; it is the training partnership component between Germany and Nigeria (Jos); it connects Berlin and Jos, not only via festivals but also through education and legacy.
Arsenal (currently known as the Arsenal Film institut as of 1 January) is a film culture organisation that is actively engaged in curatorial practice, education, and research, in addition to being a screening location.
Crucially, Arsenal has also been involved in a multi-year collaboration with Jos that focuses on film culture and archiving — the kind of infrastructure that determines whether a country retains its cultural heritage or loses it.
In 2018, Goethe University, Arsenal, and the Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum (DIF) announced a four-year initiative called “Archival Studies Master Program Jos,” which builds on collaboration with the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), according to Arsenal’s own project description. The University of Jos was to provide the MA programme, which was based on the Frankfurt programme, in collaboration with Nigeria’s National Film, Video, and Sound Archive in Jos, NFC, and the National Film Institute (NFI).
Why is this important to mention and emphasise? This is critically important because memory systems support industries, yet festivals reward new films: Nigeria remains vulnerable on a cultural and political level if it is unable to conserve, repair, and interpret its audiovisual legacy responsibly. Nigeria gets continuity — the capacity to tell its story through the generations — if it can train archivists and specialists in film culture, not only producers, directors, and directors of photography (DPs).
This Berlin-Jos collaboration represents symbolic power for NFI filmmakers. It states that the partnership is more than just “bring your film to Berlin.” “Create the institutions that guarantee Nigeria’s images endure, spread, and remain Nigerian,” it also says.
That is the deeper coincidence of 2026: submissions, panels, business forums, and archive training, which all contribute to the same conclusion: mechanisms, not just talent, will win Nigeria’s film future.
In short, 2026 proposes a new geometry for African filmmaking. African filmmakers are trained in global standards and narrative positioning at scale by the Berlinale “submit.” AfroBerlin creates relationship capital, transforming continental and diasporic networks into replicable co-production channels. For Nigeria, Lagos Business of Film signifies a wake-up call for local institutions: the business discourse is evolving from whispers to platforms.
The symbolism is almost preemptive for young Nigerian aspiring filmmakers: you are being welcomed into a world where your career is a triangle, rather than a straight line (“make film → submit → pray”).
Packaging + Craft (Berlinale submission)
Deal Fluency + Networking (AfroBerlin/EFM)
Sustainability + Local Industry Power (Lagos business forums)
The broad takeaway for the Nigerian film business is that “better stories” — of which there are plenty in Nigeria — are not the only thing that will be the next frontier of competition. Better systems include more transparent intellectual property ownership, more robust guild standards, diverse funding, reputable co-production frameworks, and a generation that has been taught to view innovation and business as partners, rather than adversaries.
Berlin 2026, which was centred on Morocco, Africa, and industry, made the future seem more like a timeline than an idea.
Mudi Yahaya, a documentary photographer and film-maker, is also an art historian.
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