Breaking new grounds and redefining the future of African cinemas, Nollywood has made a monumentous move to take charge of its international narrative. The release of KAVA, the first global exclusive platform that helps people watch Nollywood and African storytelling, is a new era of African entertainment.
Introduced in Nigeria, Lagos, KAVA is a product of a formidable collaboration between two giants in the industry Filmhouse Group and Inkblot Studios. It is not merely another streaming platform, it is a brazen expression of culture and global focus of African content creators and audiences worldwide.
Kene Okwuosa, CEO of Filmhouse Group and Co-CEO of KAVA, stated of the solution, geared towards creating the digital infrastructure of the African cinema landscape, exclaiming, We are not streaming movies we are creating the digital infrastructure of the future of African cinema, during the official press event that was held on Thursday, July 24.
Our hope is that people feel represented, they hear their voice represented, they see their traditions, experience their stories in a place that is made for them.”
Since the beginning, KAVA wants to be not only a platform but a self-regulating ecosystem in which the African creativity, tradition, and innovations would flourish. Upon launch, 30+ premier Nollywood titles will be available on the platform, comprising of post-cinema exclusives, classic cult favorites and original movies produced by both domestic and diaspora filmmakers. Its launch is pegged with a commitment to weekly release of new titles with a long-term vision to scale up to 10 titles per month.
What is really interesting about KAVA, though, is its desire to rewrite the rules of the genre. Instead of fitting the African films into the already existing Western frameworks, KAVA will be involved in creating a new definition of genres based on the African themes of storytelling, and that will provide the Nollywood with an opportunity to create its original definition.
“All the latest tech and the core of our stories come together in KAVA, remarked Chinaza Onuzo, Co-founder of Inkblot and Co-CEO of KAVA. It is a fresh creative economy one that has been dominated by the old time established filmmakers, but also one that new voices are seeking to get heard. Our desire is to make KAVA their home.”
With the support of Filmhouse, one of the largest cinema networks in West Africa and Inkblot with their successful track of works with Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming platforms, KAVA is bound to become a new standard of what African streaming can be: real, ambitious, and unashamedly African-rooted.
Although the official launch date remains August 2025, there is one thing that is obvious:
KAVA will be more than a platform but a movement. And history history is happening in real time.
