The need for long-term audience development in Nigeria has become a shared industry realization. Institutions know it: FilmOne tapped into the anime community last year for the Demon Slayer reach, and they continue to activate existing communities, while recently teasing their own film club NollyHood. Filmmakers know it: S16 has spoken about hosting monthly screenings in the near future. Film lovers know it too. Online, Iroko Critic has been hosting monthly critical discussions about the industry. Offline, monthly screening communities are rising across the country. And Arese Osakue knows it—almost obsessively—building The Nolly Guide on her own as a practical response to this culture where the cinema trip (or streaming session) too often feels like the end of the conversation.
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Arese, with a background in electrical engineering in Hungary, found herself leaning more heavily into Nollywood while living abroad. “There is something about being in diaspora that makes you want to connect more with being home and you start watching Nollywood,” she says. What began as a way of maintaining a cultural connection soon became a curiosity about why those connections and enthusiasm for Nollywood seemed to remain largely private and fleeting.
“A lot of people don’t like to relate with Nollywood openly,” she says, having noticed the pattern of an audience that watches, laughs, cries, complains and moves on quietly. It suggests an audience that hesitates to claim Nollywood publicly. The Nolly Guide is Arese’s attempt to interrupt that post-credits silence with more activities, such as experiences and community touchpoints that make fandom visible, social, and repeatable.
Her idea began online, with reviews on Instagram (and later YouTube), then ran trivia sessions on Instagram Live during COVID, “the easiest way to connect with people all around.” But the ambition was always physical. Over time, watch parties and game nights evolved into a monthly ritual that gathers Nollywood audiences in one place, not to consume a film in the screening sense, but to competitively stay in its fictional and non-fictional world together.
That ritual is Nolly Trivia, hosted every first weekend of the month in Lagos. Its format is carefully designed: six rounds of ten questions each, played in teams—whether you arrive with friends or buy a single ticket (order here) and get matched on the night. The questions shift in style and texture, from audio rounds, and images, to multiple choice, and open-ended prompts. Part of the point beyond testing knowledge is to build a roomful of shared references. “We’re very big on the experience,” Osakue insists, and she wears that like a badge. “If you come for the trivia, you will have a fantastic time.” On average, the event draws around 30 participants monthly, boasting a mix of general film lovers, industry faces, and, occasionally, actors who find their way into the room.
Behind the scenes, The Nolly Guide runs with a small team that includes a marketer, Aderayo Adejobi, and a social media & content intern, supported on trivia nights by volunteers who function in various capacities. Nollywood YouTuber Tito Abumere serves as host of the trivia night most times, valued for his knowledge of the films, the people, and the art. When he is not hosting, Arese steps in herself.
Underneath the fun is a serious audience-development logic. Arese talks about a local industry that releases films but rarely builds the culture around them—little infrastructure that sustains audience identity between premieres. “We need to find a way to connect film with the people that actually watch and enjoy the film,” she says. “It shouldn’t just be like you watch it and that’s the end.” In practice, the results of her efforts can be immediate. “Somebody said I watched Landline last night because I felt like you would ask about it today, and I didn’t want to not know the answer.” Her own language for the vision is a Nollywood where “after the end credits, the film doesn’t end there. It goes on.”
Like any community-led project, the hardest part is the conversion. Regulars exist, and word-of-mouth travels; people show up, gush, and sometimes disappear. The biggest hurdle, she admits, is the moment Nollywood fandom requires putting money down. “When they have to spend money, that’s when they’re like…” she trails off, pointing to the broader Nigerian economic realities. Funding is therefore a mix of ticket sales, occasional prize-based partnerships from brands like Showmax, FilmOne, and Ziva Works (which have generated subscriptions, cinema tickets, merch for them), and, when necessary, personal subsidy. For Arese, a successful trivia night is one where ticket sales cover expenses. Beyond that, it’s simpler, “a fun night where every guest has fun with a lively, friendly and welcoming atmosphere.”
Now prepping for its 11th edition, Nolly Trivia has been held monthly since April 2025. This month’s edition, to be held on March 7, arrives at a strategic intersection with International Women’s Month. In a more curated theme, they aim to spotlight women in Nollywood—moving beyond the generalist format that has defined most previous editions.
For this edition, What Kept Me Up joins as a programming partner, contributing a specially curated trivia round focused on overlooked women who have shaped Nollywood across different eras. The aim is to reinsert neglected names and contributions into contemporary audience consciousness.
Beyond programming, WKMUp will also be present on-ground at the Lagos event (doors open at 5pm) hosting a pop-up stand and conducting vox pops with attendees on female representation in Nollywood films. Attendees will be invited to participate in a short survey, exploring perceptions of how Nollywood treats female characters. Findings from the survey will later be published as a public-facing audience insight report.
Still, the point is bigger than one night a month for Arese. The Nolly Guide is growing sideways. Public sale of their custom game cards (“Charade But for Nollywood”) is on its way, an active film club with town halls, and a developing plan for a mobile trivia booth that can plug into premieres and brand activations. The throughline remains making engagement rooted in community. It’s a small, stubborn answer to a question everyone is circling: how Nollywood might create experiences that keep audiences in its world between releases.
The March edition of Nolly Trivia will take place on March 7 in Lagos. Get your tickets here.
What Kept Me Up joins this month’s International Women’s Month edition as programming partner.
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