Flix Oven has launched an African-Korean filmmaker residency program, naming “Mami Wata” director C.J. Obasi as its inaugural fellow, the company revealed at the Cannes Film Market.
The Seoul-based company has partnered with Continental Entertainment, an African-focused representation and production outfit founded by Ozi Menakaya, to bring African filmmakers to Korea for extended script development residencies.
Obasi is set for a month-long Seoul stay to work on a new feature described as a story bridging African and Korean cultures, with a theatrical release planned. Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary will serve as executive producers through their Revelations Entertainment banner.
Obasi’s “Mami Wata” premiered at Sundance in 2023, earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination and represented Nigeria at the 96th Academy Awards. The Variety review of the film out of Sundance said: “Shot in dense, high-contrast black and white, writer-director C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi’s ‘Mami Wata,’ unspools like a mysterious dream. It’s both inscrutable and hypnotic, delivering indelible images while remaining narratively opaque. Billed as a ‘West African folklore,’ its story could be taken as a straightforward fable about tradition vs. modernity and how power corrupts. But as its plot unravels, confounding layers surface beneath that easy explanation.”
Flix Oven, led by South African producer Thomas Maitland and Korean producer Lee Hyojin, has been broadening its international reach on several fronts. The company recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Mediawan’s Ego Productions label for collaboration across European markets and unveiled its next Indian co-production, “Amor,” in New Delhi during Korean President Lee Jae-myung’s state visit. Its Korean-Indian co-production “Made in Korea” continues to perform on Netflix.
Obasi is represented by Justin Littman at Sycamore Media and at Continental Entertainment.
