#119: Olive Nwosu, Filmmaker

Olive Nwosu is a Nigerian filmmaker, a BAFTA Pigott 2020 Scholar, an Alex Sichel Fellow at Columbia University School of the Arts, and one of four ‘African Promises’ directors selected by the Institut Français.

She has directed two award-winning short films: TROUBLEMAKER and EGÚNGÚN (MASQUERADE), both set in Nigeria and which have screened in numerous film festivals, including Sundance, the BFI London Film Festival, TIFF and the Aspen Shortsfest. The latter was also nominated for Best British Short Film at the BIFAs in 2021. 

Earlier this year, Olive took part in an online edition of the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and she is currently developing her first feature film with Film4. 

We talk about initially studying engineering and how she discovered, and decided to pursue, filmmaking, some of the difficulties Olive has experienced in sustaining a practice and what that practice looks like. We also talking quite in-depth about Olive’s short film EGÚNGÚN (MASQUERADE) and how that film came to be, what she wanted to explore, how she crafted its visual language and finding the right collaborators. 

I saw that film and Olive speak on a panel at Sundance London and was immediately beguiled both by her cinematic voice and by how she spoke about the film on stage and I knew straight away I would love to have her on the podcast and the conversation we had didn’t disappoint. I think Olive is a really special filmmaker and I was incredibly privileged to share this space and this moment in time with her.