EDITORIAL: Beyond “Holding Talks” — NFC Must Turn Women-in-Film Conversation into Action

The Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) deserves commendation for its timely initiative, in partnership with GIZ, to increase women’s participation in the technical and traditionally male-dominated areas of Nigeria’s film industry.

Historically, behind-the-camera work was largely a male preserve. Heavy equipment and demanding production conditions may have contributed, but cultural expectations, limited access to training, professional networks and industry structures were equally significant.

Over the years, Nigerian women have challenged that order. Pioneers such as Lola Fani-Kayode and Amaka Igwe, followed by filmmakers including Patience Oghre, Emem Isong and Kemi Adetiba, demonstrated that women could excel in directing and other creative leadership roles.

Yet the same progress is less evident in cinematography, sound, editing, lighting and other technical departments. Female participation is considerably more visible in areas such as makeup, hairstyling, costume and wardrobe, and welfare.

The question, therefore, is not whether Nigerian women have the capacity. They clearly do. The question is what prevents more women from entering, remaining and advancing in these technical disciplines?

Is it access to training and equipment? Workplace culture? Lack of mentorship and role models? Perceived technical barriers? Recruitment practices? Or inadequate exposure to these career pathways in film schools?

These questions require evidence, not assumptions.

The NFC and its development partners should therefore move beyond stakeholder consultation to a deliberate, measurable intervention.

The first step should be industry mapping and data collection. Working with guilds, professional associations and film schools, the NFC could establish a reliable database of women across the film value chain—from cinematographers, editors and sound professionals to production assistants and other technical practitioners.

That data should reveal where the gaps are, what disciplines women are entering, where they drop out and what barriers prevent progression.

The findings should then inform targeted training, retraining, mentorship, technical upgrading and employment pathways. Film students should also have structured access to internships and apprenticeships with production companies, broadcasters and other industry stakeholders.

The conversation must also extend beyond Jos.

Jos is an important centre of Nigeria’s film culture and training, particularly through the National Film Institute. But Lagos, Enugu and Kano have distinct film ecosystems and must be part of the consultation. Their producers, guilds, practitioners, training institutions and women working—or seeking to work—in technical departments may offer different perspectives on the problem.

The NFC should listen to all of them.

Otherwise, the initiative risks becoming another exercise in what the late Professor Ola Rotimi aptly captured in Holding Talks—discussion without commensurate action.

There is nothing wrong with holding talks. Every meaningful intervention begins with dialogue. But dialogue must lead to policy, implementation and measurable outcomes.

For AILFF, the issue is particularly important. Promoting African indigenous-language cinema requires not only getting indigenous languages onto the screen but also building the technical capacity to tell those stories with excellence.

We therefore commend the NFC-GIZ initiative while urging the partners to go further: map the industry, gather the data, identify the barriers, build the talent pipeline, create mentorship and internship pathways, facilitate access to equipment and finance, and publish measurable outcomes.

Nollywood does not lack talented women.

What it needs is a system that gives more of them equal access to the tools, opportunities and professional pathways through which cinema is made.

The conversation has started in Jos. Let it not end there.