Prime Video Releases First-Look Images for Jade Osiberu’s ‘Christmas in Lagos’ With Ayra Starr Before Pausing Original Productions in Africa (EXCLUSIVE)

Prime Video has released first-look images for “Christmas in Lagos,” a holiday romantic comedy from “ Gangs of Lagos ” multi-hyphenate Jade Osiberu that features chart-topping Afrobeats sensation Ayra Starr and a loaded cast of Nigerian pop and screen stars.

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The film marks the first and only original to come out of Osiberu’s groundbreaking, multi-title pact with the streaming giant, which announced earlier this year that it was pressing pause on its original productions in Africa. Osiberu confirmed to Variety that she has formally exited that deal.

Taking its cues — and maybe a few meet-cutes — from “Love Actually,” “Christmas in Lagos” sets a series of interlocking stories against the backdrop of Lagos’ raucous “Detty December” festivities, following four friends navigating friendship, love and loss during the holiday season.

The cast includes Teniola A. Aladese, Shalom C. Obiago, Rayxia Ojo and Shaffy Bello, with on-screen appearances from some of the biggest names in Afrobeats , including the 22-year-old vocal sensation Starr, who appeared in Variety ’s 2024 Young Hollywood Impact Report , and singer-songwriter Adekunle Gold.

Speaking to Variety from Lagos, Osiberu said the story revolves around the “magical” Nigerian phenomenon of Detty December, when the country’s largest, loudest and most vibrant city transforms into a month-long street party and celebration.

“There’s a lot of family togetherness during Christmas, but a majority of it is around a culture of having these big parties and concerts and weddings,” she said. “Every single day there’s a crazy event.”

The film follows recently heartbroken Fiyin (Aladese), who’s convinced her best friend, Elo (Obiago), is the love of her life. The problems begin when he arrives from New York, ready to propose to his secret girlfriend, Yagazie (Angel Anosike). Meanwhile, 59-year-old Gbemi (Bello) is torn between her boyfriend of two years (Wale Ojo) and an old flame and high school sweetheart (Richard Mofe Damijo).

Then there’s London-born and -raised Ivie (Rayxia Ojo), who comes home to Lagos for the holidays with one dream: to have the Detty-est December possible. What she doesn’t count on is falling head-over-heels in love with Ajani (Ladipo).

This being Lagos, the plot moves to the pulsing rhythms of Nigerian Afrobeats, with Osiberu explaining: “If you’re making a Detty December movie and you don’t put Afrobeats in it, it just feels very inauthentic.”

The directing and producing powerhouse said she knew she had to go big in order to transfer that energy to the screen. “Christmas films set in Lagos have been made before,” she said, “but nobody has captured the essence of what it means to come to Lagos in December. And that’s because you can’t do that without scale.”

That meant concert scenes and lavish wedding parties — something Amazon execs immediately signed off on when Osiberu pitched the concept to them.

“‘If we’re going to make a Christmas film, let’s make it the best, biggest, most exciting Christmas film that we can make out of Nigeria. So when anybody sees this, they get a sense for what it’s like to spend Christmas in Lagos, and they want to be there as well,’” she recalled being told by studio execs.

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Pulling that off also meant securing top-shelf talent like Starr, though Osiberu said it “wasn’t easy” to get hold of one of global pop music’s most in-demand vocalists.

“For me, Ayra Starr represents what it means to be young and female and daring and brave and fearless — just being yourself,” Osiberu said. “She was on the list from day one.” Other artists making cameos in the film include rising stars Wurld and Liya, while the soundtrack features songs from legendary musician King Sunny Ade, Afrobeats icons Flavour and D’banj, and more.

The film, which marks the only title to be released under Osiberu’s three-year output deal with Prime Video, brings a close to a short-lived chapter in the streaming giant’s foray into the African market, after its abrupt departure from the continent earlier this year. (Amazon execs did not respond to a request from Variety for updates on the company’s Africa strategy moving forward.)

Described at the time as an “unprecedented” pact between the streamer and an African creator, Ned Mitchell, the Los Angeles-based head of originals for Africa and the Middle East for Prime Video and Amazon Studios, hinted that Osiberu’s deal was the first of many more to come, telling Variety that the company was “investing in her as a talent and a magnet for other talent.”

Speaking for the first time about the break-up, Osiberu, who was in talks to make roughly seven original films for Prime Video as part of her deal, said the company’s about-face was “very disappointing, particularly because of how abrupt it was,” adding: “None of us saw it coming.”

News of the streamer’s Africa pull-out arrived with principal photography on “Christmas in Lagos” just two weeks out, and Osiberu and her colleagues spent a fretful fortnight wondering if the project would be part of the collateral damage from the company’s decision. “I’m grateful that at least Amazon stuck to their commitment to finish the film,” she said.

The creator of Nigerian box-office sensations “Sugar Rush” and “Isoken,” which she produced through her Greoh Studios shingle, Osiberu remains no less hopeful about the future prospects for Africa’s screen industries.

“I do think Africa is an exciting market. I think that the African diaspora is a massive market as well, which Afrobeats has already proven,” she said. “I think you can draw a direct line between what’s happening on the continent and the broader Black culture around the world.

“As the industry and as the continent grows, I suspect — not just Amazon, but I think other distributors and platforms — will reconsider the territory as well. And it’s exciting to still have other partners on the territory who are still investing.”

Osiberu is also still bullish on Nigeria’s homegrown Nollywood industry, which she praised for its “resilience.”

“Over the years, it’s had all sorts of seasons, but one thing Nollywood hasn’t done is stop growing,” she said. “Nollywood will survive whatever happens. We will always find a way to make our films and keep growing.”

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