Nollywood’s Great Christmas Movie Rush

For an industry that has carried the weight of our collective nostalgia since 1992, Nollywood has never been shy of telling our stories, family sagas, historical epics, village dramas, city chaos, love, heartbreak, juju, and the occasional helicopter explosion that appears from nowhere. From reel tapes to VHS cassettes, from CDs to YouTube uploads, from cinema premieres to global streaming platforms, our industry has evolved, stretched, adapted, and reinvented itself so many times that even the actors sometimes lose count.

However, amid all this glorious evolution, a new obsession has tiptoed into the room wearing a Santa hat and jingling bells: the Great Nollywood Christmas Rush.

Since 2020, something curious, borderline comedic has happened. Suddenly, every last quarter of the year, producers begin to breathe heavily. Why? Because everybody must shoot a Christmas movie, whether inspiration comes or not. It’s as though a silent decree was issued: “Submit your Christmas film or risk eternal obscurity.”

The result? A mad scramble to package bright colours, snowy décor (in tropical Nigeria, no less), sparkly bokeh lights, TikTok-worthy teaser clips, and loud announcements of opening-weekend revenue. The art? The depth? The storytelling? Ehn… those ones sometimes throw movie lovers into confusion, even though everyone knows it is important.

Now, as 2025 draws its final curtain, the cinemas are preparing to host four new Christmas-themed Nollywood films, each producer armed with a marketing strategy fiercer than Santa’s reindeer on energy drinks. Everyone is fighting tooth and nail to be the holiday blockbuster, the one that families will choose after battling December traffic and ATM queues.

Because underneath all the glittery posters and strategic PR dinners lies one simple truth: Nollywood loves a trend, almost as much as it loves trying to out trend itself, but hey, it’s Christmas. If there’s any season to forgive artistic shortcuts and questionable snow effects, it’s this one. After all, who no like holiday cheer?