THE LOCAL & FLY

Netflix has taken yet another step in the collection of African movies. The movie by Mati Diop ‘Atlantics’ have been added to its pile of African movies. ‘Atlantics’ premiered earlier at the just concluded Cannes Film Festival and was awarded the Jury’s second-place prize. Netflix acquisition rights of ‘Atlantics’ excludes China, Benelux, Switzerland, Russia, and France.

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The global streaming company made its first move into acquiring African movies earlier this year, so the recent acquisitions were expected.

Nollywood’s ‘Lionheart’ and South Africa’s ‘Shadow’ are among the top titles of this year’s acquisitions. Aside from movies, Netflix also added a number of South African TV series to the list including its first African animation ‘Mama k’s Team 4‘.

Diop’s ‘Atlantics’ is one of the two movies from filmmakers of African descent to ever compete at the festival. ‘Les Miserables’ by French Malian filmmaker Ladj Ly also premiered and competed at the festival. The movie picked up the Jury’s Price, after which Amazon Studios acquired its U.S. rights.

With Netflix, Africa is propelled towards exploring its untapped talents and potentials in storytelling and filmmaking. The dates for the release of both ‘Atlantics’ and ‘Les Miserables’ are yet to be known.

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