Netflix Unveils African Originals Cache For 2022 To 2023

Netflix on Tuesday unveiled its plans for African feature films for this year and the next year at an event in South Africa.

The streaming platform unveiled its slate of African originals, presenting a showcase of local-language series, feature films and non-fiction projects produced in Africa that will roll out across the streamer’s global service later this year and in early 2023.

Highlights include The King’s Horseman, the hotly awaited film adaptation of Noble Prize-winning writer Wole Soyinka’s acclaimed anti-colonial play Death and the King’s Horseman.

Adapted and directed by Half of a Yellow Sun director Biyi Bandele, the Yoruba-language drama will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

The global streamer has been a pioneer in African production, signing up multi-title agreements with some of the region’s top creators and producers.

On Tuesday, Netflix announced a multi-project partnership with acclaimed South African filmmaker Mandlakayise Walter Dube, the director of Silverton Siege, the first African film Netflix commissioned.

The streamer already has similar deals in place with Mo Abudu and her Ebonylife Studios (producers of The King’s Horseman), and Kunle Afolayan with his Nigerian film production house KAP.

Afolayan’s latest project for Netflix is Anikulapo, a mystical folklore drama, which will premiere on the platform on September 30.

Netflix also confirmed it has commissioned a new season of its popular pan-African reality TV show Young Famous and African.