The recent announcement that The Weekend has been licensed by HBO Max for Central and Eastern Europe sent a wave of optimism through Nigeria’s film industry. It arrived just after another hurdle in the sector with the announced shutdown of Showmax. In that context, the moment served as a reminder that more platforms and deals still exist beyond the immediate ecosystem.
But the more important question is how those opportunities are reached. What kind of positioning is required? The journey of The Weekend offers one possible blueprint.
We spoke with Uche Okocha, Managing Director of Trino Motion Pictures, about how the HBO Max deal came together. The conversation reveals more about the evolving distribution pathways for Nigerian films. In the process, he also discussed Trino’s growing ambitions to operate across multiple stages of the film value chain.
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The HBO Max Moment
According to Uche Okocha, conversations around the HBO Max deal began quietly in 2025, eventually leading to an agreement granting HBO Max SVOD rights in Central and Eastern Europe for an 18-month window, with the possibility of renewal depending on performance. Under the deal, the film’s rights remain with Trino, which had previously partnered with international sales agency The Film Sales Company to represent the title globally.
That relationship with The Film Sales Company proved instrumental in opening the HBO Max conversation. The sales company introduced the film to the platform by highlighting its festival run, press coverage and critical reception. By that point, the film had already built a strong international profile, including an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score (currently standing at 81% as at the time of publication) and press attention around director Daniel Oriahi’s work. Perhaps unexpectedly, HBO Max did not request any creative changes to the film before licensing it. “They loved the film the way it was,” Okocha says. “We thought there might be requests for edits or a different cut, but there weren’t.”
The Tribeca Launchpad
The HBO Max deal sits at a point of a distribution strategy that began long before the film reached audiences. From the outset, Trino set out to make a story that could travel internationally, one that felt culturally grounded yet familiar to global audiences. With a similar pathway of the festival circuit as the starting point for international visibility, The Weekend joins recent Nigerian titles such as Eyimofe and All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White that have also found their way onto HBO Max in different territories.
At Tribeca 2024, programmers described the film’s premise as “what is wrong with the in-laws,” a universally recognisable trope that helped position the story for international audiences while remaining rooted in the Nigerian cultural dynamics that Trino envisioned. Meeting their major festival premiere objective, the film was quickly positioned in front of international buyers, distributors and sales agents. “The strategy was to get into a big festival, create buzz, and then start conversations with sales agents and distributors,” Okocha explains.
Tribeca proved to be a crucial launchpad. Directed by Oriahi and produced by Okocha, the psychological horror thriller features an ensemble cast including Bucci Franklin, Uzoamaka Power, Meg Otanwa, Keppy Ekpenyong-Bassey, Gloria Anozie-Young, Damilola Ogunsi, and James Gardiner. During its festival run, the film also gained major recognition at the 2024 Africa Movie Academy Awards, where it received 16 nominations and won Best Film, Best Nigerian Film, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography.
The Weekend went on to screen at more than 27 festivals worldwide, including the BFI London Film Festival and Screamfest in Los Angeles. The international exposure soon translated into the film’s first licensing deal with the Australian broadcaster SBS On Demand, marking a rare appearance for a Nigerian film on the platform.
A Multi-Platform Release Path
While the film travelled internationally, its release strategy also unfolded across several platforms in Nigeria. In 2024, The Weekend made its digital debut on Circuits, a Nigerian streaming platform focused on African cinema. The following year it became available on Kava, another locally-backed streaming service.
For Trino, those deals were about supporting emerging African platforms and also formed part of the company’s broader view of the industry. “When Nigerian platforms launch, it’s important that we support them,” Okocha says. “Building our own ecosystem matters.”
The HBO Max deal now adds another territory to the film’s cycle, demonstrating how films can move across multiple platforms over time rather than relying on a single distribution destination, a bandwagon problem that the industry had previously suffered from.
Why Sales Agents Matter
For Okocha, the journey of The Weekend also reinforces the role of film markets and sales representation in the global industry. While festivals generate prestige and visibility, the commercial side of filmmaking operates in a different space. “Festivals celebrate films,” he says. “But markets build the industry.”
After the film premiered at the Tribeca Festival, Trino began receiving a wave of emails and meeting requests from international sales agents and distributors who had discovered the film through the festival. That attention placed the team in the position of having to evaluate potential partners carefully.
“Once you get into a big festival, the sales agents start coming to you,” Okocha says. “You receive a ridiculous number of emails, meetings and calls, and you have to decide who the right partner is.”
Trino ultimately partnered with The Film Sales Company, which initially represented the film globally during its festival run. The founder Andrew Herwitz quickly stood out during their discussions. Although that formal representation agreement has since concluded, the companies continue to collaborate on a case-by-case basis when opportunities arise. According to Okocha, the decision was shaped by how deeply the team felt the sales company understood the film. “When someone talks about your film with passion — like it’s their own — that’s the kind of partner you want,” Okocha says.
That partnership would prove critical in securing the HBO Max deal. The Film Sales Company leveraged its relationships with international platforms and began pitching the film to potential buyers, eventually opening the conversation with HBO Max.
Trino’s Expanding Play
The experience has also shaped Trino’s ambitions beyond production. In recent years the company has begun expanding into content acquisition and international sales representation, positioning itself as an intermediary between African filmmakers and global buyers. According to Okocha, Trino has now launched a dedicated content acquisition and sales division, and has already acquired multiple films to represent internationally.
One clear example is To Adaego With Love, which Trino discovered at the inaugural AFRIFF Film and Content Market. The period romantic drama went on to win Best Film at the AFRIFF Globe Awards and has received a Nigerian theatrical release organised by Trino (through Tribe Nation) following the festival. The company now represents the film for international distribution, with the aim of securing deals across as many territories as possible, whether through theatrical releases, streaming platforms or alternative outlets such as airline in-flight entertainment. “It’s about ensuring these films can be seen everywhere,” Okocha says.
The Sales Gap in Nollywood
As Trino moved deeper into sales and distribution, it encountered a structural challenge: the Nigerian film industry has very few professionals trained specifically in international sales. To address that gap, Trino partnered with Ijeoma Onah and the Nigeria International Film and TV Summit to launch an International Sales and Distribution Executive Programme, aimed at training industry practitioners in the business side of filmmaking.
The first edition of the programme trained 12 participants drawn from across the industry, with the goal of equipping them with the skills needed to broker international deals and navigate global distribution systems. Following that initial cohort, Trino now plans to expand the programme to 24 participants in its next edition as it works to grow a larger pool of sales professionals within the industry.
“For every creative there should be a sales or distribution executive,” Okocha says. “Nollywood has many programmes for writers, directors and producers, but the business side of filmmaking is just as important.”
Where Distribution is Headed
Looking ahead, The Weekend has already surpassed Trino’s initial expectations. While the company expected the festival route might eventually lead back to familiar platforms like Netflix or Prime Video, the “unexpected” HBO Max partnership opened a completely new territory for them.
For Okocha, the film’s journey reflects a broader shift in how African films may reach audiences in the coming years. Rather than relying on a single dominant platform, distribution may increasingly involve films moving across multiple services and territories throughout their cycle.
Technology, he believes, is already reshaping the landscape. “The future is already happening,” he says. “Technology is changing how films reach audiences.”
For filmmakers navigating today’s uncertain distribution environment, the journey of The Weekend demonstrates how a Nigerian film can still travel globally, going through festivals, sales representation, staggered licensing and strategic positioning in an increasingly shaky distribution landscape.
The Weekend is available to HBO Max subscribers across Central and Eastern Europe, including Albania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Moldova and Serbia.
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