A growing number of film projects linking Nigeria and Kenya are beginning to hint at a deeper creative exchange between both industries, with Cheta Chukwu’s The Child Will Carry You and Ella Chikezie’s Nwanne emerging as the latest examples of this cross-continental push.
Chukwu’s The Child Will Carry You was recently selected for the Project Market at the International Indian Ocean Film Festival (FIFOI), scheduled to take place from April 14 to 19, 2026, in Saint-Paul, Réunion Island, France.
Rooted in magical realism, the Nigerian-Kenyan psychological drama follows a grieving mother haunted by the loss of her unborn child, who finds comfort in her imaginative son. As his presence starts to slip away, she is forced to confront her grief and fight to hold on to him.
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Produced by Kenyan producer Ivy Kiru (Free Money, Toronto International Film Festival) and Nigerian producer Orwi Manny Ameh (Hello Rain, BFI London Film Festival), the short film is currently in development and will be pitched alongside works by filmmakers from Kenya, South Africa, India, and Réunion Island.
Chukwu recently won the Red Sea Souk Jury Special Mention and Professional Business and Legal Support for To Catch a Falling Sky.
That same cross-border collaboration is evident in Ella Chikezie’s new project Nwanne, which has just wrapped its Kenyan leg of principal photography. Shot in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi, the production will now move to Nigeria for its second phase in April 2026.
Written, directed, produced and executive produced by Chikezie under her FlyGrade Media banner, who describes the film as “a deeply personal story about sisterhood, sacrifice, and the quiet ways love survives distance and misunderstanding”, Nwanne follows two estranged sisters whose unexpected reunion forces them to confront years of unresolved tension.
Celestina Aleobua (After 30) plays Ifeoma, a writer on residency in Kenya, while Love Nebo-Chapot plays Nkeoma, the sister she has not seen in years. Behind the camera, Ugandan cinematographer Kizito Samuel Saviour leads the film’s visual direction, working with Kenyan gaffer Nard Maingi. Also on board the project in an advisory role is Kenyan producer Shirleen Wangari.
The Kenyan schedule of the short film focused on their reunion, while the Nigerian leg will complete the narrative.
Chikezie’s previous short In Her Shoes screened at 2026 Kitale Film Week in Kenya, won the Best Director at the All African Indie Film Festival and Best Female Representation in Film at 2025 Lagos Fringe Film Awards.
Most recent examples of the strong collaboration between both countries on screen are One Woman One Bra, written and directed by Kenyan filmmaker Vincho Nchogu and produced by Nigerian producer Josh Olaoluwa and Obi Emelonye’s Safari, which was partly shot in Kenya and coproduced with Reuben Odanga’s Multan Productions.
One Woman One Bra premiered at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival as part of the Biennale College Cinema programme. It later continued its run on the international circuit, including a win at the BFI London Film Festival, where it took home the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature.
Shot in Kenya with a cross-continental crew, including Nigerian cinematographer Muhammad Atta Ahmed, the film follows a 38-year-old woman fighting to retain her ancestral land in a system that excludes her due to her lack of recognised lineage.
The collaboration between Nchogu and Olaoluwa had already been built through development labs like the Red Sea Lodge and Torino Film Lab before the film moved into production, pointing to how these partnerships are often formed long before the shoot.
In that context, The Child Will Carry You and Nwanne sit within an ongoing pattern of filmmakers, producers and crew across Nigeria, Kenya and more internationally, moving through international residencies, pitch and film labs from development to screenings.
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