C.J. Obasi

C. J. Obasi (also known as "Fiery" or "The Fiery One") is a Nigerian film director, screenwriter and editor.

His debut feature – a zero budget film Ojuju premiered at the Africa International Film Festival in November 2014, and won the award for Best Nigerian Film. It also got him the Trailblazer of the Year award in March 2015, at the Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards (AMVCA).

Early life and career Born in the city of Owerri, the capital city of Imo State, Nigeria, Obasi grew up watching Hammer Horror films, reading Stephen King novels and watching film adaptations of his work. From the young age of 3, he would watch classic films and his favorite superheroes and villains; recreating them in hand-drawn comic books.

Obasi's directorial debut came in 2014 with Ojuju; a zombie thriller film. The movie was screened in various festivals around the world, including the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, Shockproof Film Festival in Prague, New Voices in Black Film Festival in New York, Nollywood Week Festival in Paris, Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, Africa International Film Festival where it won the award of the Best Nigerian Film and others; garnering universal acclaim from the likes of internationally renowned critics such as Todd Brown of Twitch Film, Tambay A. Obenson of Shadow and Act, and Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter. Remarkably, Ojuju is a zero budget movie.

His second film, O-Town, was released in 2015 to even more critical acclaim. A crime thriller, O-Town, also written by Obasi, tells the tale of a small town mired in crime. O-Town was inspired by Owerri, the place where Obasi was born.

In 2018, Obasi directed the film adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor's africanfuturistic short story "Hello, Moto". The short film, Hello, Rain, stars Keira Hewatch as Rain, a scientist and witch. In February 2017, Fiery Film Production optioned the short story and began production.

It had its world premiere at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, on 6 May 2018.

Surreal16 Collective

Obasi is a co-founding member of the Surreal16 (S16) Collective. Inspired by the Danish cinema movement Dogme 95, Surreal16 was born from a mutual admiration by three Nigerian filmmakers (Obasi, Abba Makama, and Micheal Omonua). They became disillusioned by the abundance of slapstick comedies and wedding films. The Collective set out to diversify output and encourage a new type of cinema. The collective wrote a manifesto containing sixteen rules and guidelines that govern the making of their films. The rules were announced during a panel at Africa International Film Festival 2017 after the screening of their first anthology film Visions. In 2021 Obasi and the collective founded the S16 Film Festival, a platform for the new wave of African cinema that speaks the universal vocabulary of film. In 2021, the collective released Juju Stories, a three-part anthology film exploring juju (magical) stories rooted in Nigerian folklore and urban legend. Obasi directed the second segment called "Suffer the Witch".

Mami Wata

Obasi first came up with and began developing Mami Wata in 2016. The characters Prisca and Zinwe were inspired by Obasi's late sisters. Production companies attached to Mami Wata include Obasi's Fiery Film Company, Guguru Studios, Palmwine Media, Swiss Fund Visions Sud Est, and Ifind Pictures of France. Principal photography took place on location in the rural villages of Benin and wrapped in January 2021. At the Sundance Film Festival, cinematographer Lílis Soares won the Special Jury Prize in the World Dramatic Competition for the film's cinematography. It also picked up three awards at FESPACO - Prix de la Critique Pauline S. Vieyra (African Critics Award), Meilleure Image (Cinematography Award) and Meilleur Décor (Set Design Award). It was acquired by Dekanalog for North American distribution.

In October 2023, it was selected as the Nigerian entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards by The Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC). It has been nominated in the Best International Film category of the 39th Independent Spirit Awards.

Filmography Igodo Films

Natives Filmworks

Michelangelo ProductionsCo-writer Juju Stories202120 Pounds Production Ifind Pictures

Fiery Film

Osiris Creatives

Ifind Pictures

PalmWine Media