C.J. Obasi

Director

Biography

Nigeria

C.J. “Fiery” Obasi made his debut feature – a zero budget film Ojuju, which premiered at the Africa International Film Festival in November 2014, where it won the award for Best Nigerian Film and went on to screen at other festivals around the world, garnering universal acclaim despite its zero budget status. Obasi’s sophomore effort is the feature film O-Town, a crime thriller epic piece, which he calls his “Western in an Eastern land,” which won and was nominated for many awards. Through his production company, Fiery Film, he acquired the rights to Hello, Moto a short story based on the book by acclaimed Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor, which resulted in the short film, Hello, Rain. The film had its world premiere at the Oscar-qualifying International Competition of the Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen in May 2018, and has gone on to screen at over 30 festivals, including the Fantasia Film Festival, where it won the Special Mention of the Jury prize, and the BFI London Film Festival, where it was a nominee for Best Short Film. In 2019, Obasi served as a jury member at the Durban International Film Festival. His third feature, Mami Wata, is a female-driven black and white fantasy film developed with Ouaga Film Lab, Less is More, EAVE, and Durban FilmMart.

Filmography

Ojuju (2014)
O-Town (2015)
Visions: Bruja (2017)
Hello, Rain (2018)
Juju Stories (2021)
Mami Wata (2023)

Films Curated by AFF

Events