It’s still very much AFRIFF season over here until the last AFRIFF post drops. For this reason, we’re highlighting some of the interviews that filmmakers, actors had with What Kept Me Up, right from the opening night to the Globe Awards night.
The interviews began with Zoey Martinson, writer-director of The Fisherman, who won the Best Director Award at AFRIFF 2025. She spoke about the film’s journey from an early short to a feature, inspired by the real situation of the Ghanaian coast being cleared. While presenting her award, David Oyelowo shared a brief story about encouraging Martinson to expand the short into a full-length film.
WKMUp’s first interaction with the satirical comedy was in review at the New York African Film Festival. For a more rounded coverage of The Fisherman at AFRIFF 2025, we got to speak to some cast members, Ricky Adelayitar (who plays the lead role as Atta Oko), Endurance Dedzo (Shasha), and William Lamptey (Kobina).
(Click to Follow the What Kept Me Up channel on WhatsApp)
We followed that with more filmmakers, including Chris Djuma (Rearview), Jonathan Curtiss (Boy No Fear), Riyo David (To Adaego With Love), Allison Precious Emmanuel (The Boy Who Gave), Jumoke Azeez (Seed), Brenda Ogbukaa-Garuba (To Adaego With Love) who all spoke about the inspiration for their projects and where the road leads to next.
“Screening at AFRIFF was quite personal,” Seed producer Jumoke Azeez says. Azeez had attended the festival in 2024 as the production coordinator for Princess on a Hill, a Showmax original series that premiered at the festival and is now back at this edition with a short film she produced. We also spoke to Katharina Weingartner, one of the four directors of Nigerian-Austrian documentary Lace Relations, a documentary about the origins of the lace trade in Lagos, all the way to a small town in Austria.
All the interviews have been made into a playlist on our YouTube Channel. Watch them here.
Become a patron: To support our in-depth and critical coverage—become a Patron today!
Join the conversation: Share your thoughts in the comments section or on our social media accounts.
