According to Prince Daniel, director of Mai Martaba, Nigeria’s official entry for the 2025 Oscars, its path to that honour was far from rosy. He was speaking at a Q&A following the screening of his film at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre during the 2025 Nollywood In Hollywood event.
“I got trapped during this production because I’m from the north but I am Christian,” he said. “But Kannywood is a predominantly Muslim industry. Now, the Nollywood side of the industry is predominantly Christians. I became trapped because at some point, Kannywood didn’t quite accept me because of religion and Nollywood didn’t accept me because of region.”
“The dynamics changed when the film got selected to represent Nigeria at this year’s Oscars,” he added to applause from the NoHo audience.
Daniel also spoke about his funding challenges. “Nobody wanted to invest because the director wasn’t known.” More problems arose when it was time to shoot. Locations had to be carefully chosen to avoid the risk of Boko Haram and kidnapping. Shooting ended up taking place in Daura, home of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The most devastating setback came when the production “got careless” and lost “almost 46 percent of the entire production”. The audience at the Egyptian Theatre gasped. “What you see now is a reversed production,” he said. To keep the show on the road, Daniel said he rescripted the narrative to fit the footage recovered. “We are not proud of it” but that’s what happened, he said.
In a last attempt to salvage the film, he called the post-production supervisor, who responded with a line from the bible” and asked if it can be worked on. “The supervisor replied and said, “Dry bones shall rise again”.
In a surprising twist, Mai Martaba was never intended to be submitted for consideration by the Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee. But after submitting a different film to the committee, there was some time left. Daniel decided to enter one more film.
