C.J. "Fiery" Obasi

C.J. Obasi — widely known as “Fiery” — is a writer-director whose films have redefined the boundaries of contemporary Nigerian cinema. His features OJUJU and O-TOWN screened at major festivals including Gothenburg and Fantasia, drawing praise from outlets such as Screen Anarchy and The Hollywood Reporter. OJUJU is listed among IndieWire’s Best Zombie Films of All Time, and Obasi has earned both an African Movie Academy Award and the AMVCA Trailblazer Award.

His short film Hello, Rain premiered in international competition at Oberhausen, screened at more than 30 festivals including BFI London and Fantasia (where it won a Special Jury Mention), and further cemented his reputation for genre-bending storytelling. In 2016, Obasi co-founded the Surreal16 Collective to challenge Nollywood conventions; their anthology Juju Stories won Best Film (Boccalino d’Oro) at the Locarno Film Festival and was acquired worldwide by Amazon Prime Video.

Obasi’s latest feature, MAMI WATA, premiered at Sundance 2023, winning the Jury Award for Cinematography, followed by multiple honors at FESPACO. The film was Nigeria’s official submission to the Academy Awards and was later acquired by MUBI, receiving theatrical and digital distribution in over 25 territories.

He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was recently selected for the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Residency to develop his next feature, LA PYRAMIDE: A CELEBRATION OF DARK BODIES.