- Nicknames
- The Fiery One
- Fiery
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- Born and raised in small town, Owerri, Nigeria. C.J. grew up watching Hammer House horror films and reading Stephen King novels. As a child, he developed a knack for drawing comics based on all his favorite movies and superheroes at the time. Comics which he would sell to his peers much to their delight.
Much later on in life, C.J. would put aside his degree in Computer Science from the University of Nigeria (UNN) to launch into filmmaking, full time.
C.J. fondly called "Fiery" or "The Fiery One" is a genre-filmmaker from Nigeria, whose feature debut "Ojuju" - a zero budget film, premiered at the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) in November 2014, and won the award for "Best Nigerian Film". OJUJU has screened in about 20 film festivals, including the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, Shockproof Film Festival in Prague, New Voices in Black Film Festival in New York, Nollywood Week Festival in Paris, and Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, garnering universal acclaim despite its zero budget status from the likes of Screen Anarchy (formerly TwitchFilm), Bloody Disgusting, Shadow & Act, IndieWire, The Hollywood Reporter and many others. Obasi for his 'groundbreaking work' on Ojuju was awarded the Trailblazer of the Year award in March 2015, at the Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards (AMVCA). Ojuju has been listed in IndieWire's Top 12 Best Zombie Movies of All Time list.
Obasi's sophomore effort is the feature film "O-Town", a crime thriller piece, which he calls his "Western in an Eastern land" and describes as his "exploration into genre-filmmaking". O-Town premiered at the 2015 Africa International Film Festival, followed by a Nordic premiere at the 2016 Gothenburg Film Festival, Sweden. It was nominated for Best West African Int'l Film at the Screen Nation Awards, UK, and won the Achievement in Soundtrack award at the 2016 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), as well as two nominations in the Best Nigerian Film & Most Promising Actress categories. O-Town won the award for Best Director at the Lake City Film Festival (LACIFF), 2016.
Obasi acquired the option to Hello, Moto an African-Futuristic short story by the World Fantasy, Hugo & Nebula award winning Nigerian-American author, Nnedi Okorafor. The short film titled "Hello, Rain" had its world premiere at the Oscar-qualifying International Competition of the Internationale Short Film (Kurzfilmtage) Oberhausen in May 2018, and has gone on to screen in over 20 festivals, including a headline screening at Africa Utopia hosted by the Southbank Centre in London, as well as a North American premiere at Fantasia Film Festival where it received the Special Mention of the Jury prize. Hello, Rain was also selected for the BFI London Film Festival where it was also shortlisted as a nominee for the prestigious Short Film Award. Hello, Rain has also been featured on CNN and BBC for its strides in Afrofuturism and fantasy.
As a screenwriter, Obasi is a writer on the comedy-drama Lionheart, directed by Genevieve Nnaji. Lionheart had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and is the first Netflix Original Film from Nigeria. Obasi also contributed his writing to the forthcoming Living in Bondage sequel by Ramsey Nouah. Obasi is one-third of the new cinema collective from Nigeria known as Surreal16. Together they produced & directed the anthology short film Visions, which premiered at the 2017 AFRIFF, and was also part of a video installation at the LagosPhoto Festival. Visions won the Jury Prize for Best Film at In-Short Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Short Film at the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). The Collective also co-directed Juju Stories, an anthology feature film featuring three stories featuring urban legends within contemporary Nigeria, written and directed by Obasi, Makama and Omonua.
Obasi signed on as a director on the Untitled and first Nigerian Netflix Original Series by Akin Otomoso. He is presently in the pre-production stage for Mami Wata - a black and white female-driven fantasy thriller based on the popular Mermaid Goddess of West African mythology. Mami Wata was selected to participate in the Ouaga Film Lab, Burkina Faso, where it won the European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE) prize, and will participate in the EAVE Producer's Workshop taking place in Luxemburg, Serbia and Germany in March, June and October 2019 respectively. Mami Wata was also selected to participate in Le Groupe Ouest's Less is More (LIM) European development lab for limited budget films which took place in March, June and October across Poland, Romania and France respectively. Mami Wata was awarded the Sørfond - Norwegian South Fund award at the 10th Durban FilmMart, which took place at the 40th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF). Obasi also served on the DIFF jury.
Obasi is represented by the Creative Artists Agency (CAA).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous - C.J. fondly called "Fiery" or "The Fiery One" is a genre-filmmaker from Nigeria, whose feature debut "Ojuju" - a zero budget film, premiered at the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) in November 2014, and won the award for "Best Nigerian Film". Ojuju has screened in many festivals such as the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, Shockproof Film Festival in Prague, New Voices in Black Film Festival in New York, Nollywood Week Festival in Paris, and Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, garnering universal acclaim despite its zero budget status from the likes of Screen Anarchy (formerly TwitchFilm), Bloody Disgusting, Shadow & Act, The Hollywood Reporter and many others. Obasi for his 'groundbreaking work' on Ojuju, was awarded the Trailblazer of the Year award in March 2015, at the Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards (AMVCA). Obasi's sophomore effort is the feature film "O-Town", a crime thriller piece, which he calls his "Western in an Eastern land" and describes as his "exploration into genre-filmmaking". O-Town premiered at the 2015 Africa International Film Festival, followed by a Nordic premiere at the 2016 Gothenburg Film Festival, Sweden. It was nominated for Best West African Int'l Film at the Screen Nation Awards, UK, and won the Achievement in Soundtrack award at the 2016 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), as well as two nominations in the Best Nigerian Film & Most Promising Actress categories. O-Town won the award for Best Director at the Lake City Film Festival (LACIFF), 2016. Obasi acquired the option to Hello, Moto an African-Futuristic short story by the World Fantasy, Hugo & Nebula award winning Nigerian-American author, Nnedi Okorafor. The short film titled "Hello, Rain" had its world premiere at the Oscar-qualifying International Competition of the Internationale Short Film (Kurzfilmtage) Oberhausen, followed by a North American premiere at Fantasia Film Festival where it received the Special Mention of the Jury prize. Hello, Rain was selected for the BFI London Film Festival where it was also shortlisted as a nominee for the prestigious Short Film Award. Recently Obasi acquired the option to 2017 Caine Prize winner - The Sudanese love story "The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away" by Bushra al-Fadil for a short film adaptation. Obasi is one-third of the new cinema collective from Nigeria known as Surreal16. Together they produced & directed the anthology short film Visions which premiered at the 2017 AFRIFF, and was also part of a video installation at the LagosPhoto Festival. Visions won the Jury Prize for Best Film at InShort Film Festival, and has also been nominated for Best Short Film at the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). Obasi is presently in the funding/development stage for Mami Wata - a black and white female-driven fantasy thriller based on the popular Mermaid Goddess of Western Africa and African Diaspora. Mami Wata was selected for the Ouaga Film Lab in September 2018, where it won the EAVE prize.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Fiery Film
- C.J. Obasi grew up in Owerri, watching Hammer House horror films and reading Stephen King novels. As a child, he developed a knack for drawing comics based on all his favorite movies and superheroes at the time. Comics which he would sell to his peers much to their delight. Much later on in life, he would put aside his degree in Computer Science from the University of Nigeria (UNN) to launch into filmmaking, full time. Obasi, also called "Fiery" or "The Fiery One" premiered his debut feature "OJUJU" - a zero budget film at Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) 2014, where it won the award for "Best Nigerian Film". OJUJU has screened in over 40 film Festivals, receiving major acclaim from the likes of Screen Anarchy, IndieWire, & The Hollywood Reporter. OJUJU has gone on to become a cult classic, being listed among several "Best Zombie Film" of all-time list, and more recently been optioned by a major Hollywood studio for series adaptation. Obasi's sophomore feature film "O-Town", a crime thriller art-house piece, screened at AFRIFF 2015 and the 2016 Gothenburg Film Festival, Sweden. It was nominated for several awards, including the Screen Nation Awards, UK, and the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). Obasi's short film "Hello, Rain" based on Hello, Moto by world-renowned author Nnedi Okorafor had its world premiere at the Oscar-qualifying International Competition of the Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen in May 2018, and has gone on to screen in over 50 festivals, including a headline screening at Southbank Centre in London, Fantasia Film Festival where it won the Special Mention of the Jury prize and BFI London Film Festival where it was nominated for the Short Film Award. Hello, Rain has since been featured on CNN and BBC for its strides in African-futurism and fantasy. In 2019, Obasi served as a jury member at the 40th Durban International Film Festival. Obasi co-founded the new wave cinema collective, Surreal16 with filmmakers Abba T. Makama and Michael Omonua. Together they have produced two anthology projects - Visions (2017), a 3-part anthology short film exploring dreams and visions, as well as Juju Stories (2021), a 3-part anthology feature film exploring urban and mythical tales in contemporary Lagos, Nigeria. Juju Stories world premiered in the main competition of Locarno Film Festival, and won the Boccalino D'oro Award for Best Film, awarded by the Swiss Independent Critics. Juju Stories has since screened in over 20 film festivals, including the BFI London Film Festival, Seattle Film Festival, FESPACO, Indie Memphis and AFRIFF, where it won Best Director(s) Award for the trio of directors. Juju Stories was released theatrically by CanalOlympia across 12 African countries on October 29, 2021, and across Nigeria in January 21 by distribution giant, FilmOne. Juju Stories has been acquired by Amazon Prime Video and was released globally on their platform on October 7, 2022. Obasi's latest feature project is Mami Wata - a female-driven black and white fantasy film developed with Ouaga Film Lab (Burkina Faso), Le Groupe Ouest's Less is More (Poland, Romand, and France), EAVE (Luxembourg, Serbia and Germany) and Durban FilmMart (South Africa). Filmed entirely in Benin republic with an international cast and crew from more than seven countries in Africa, the Americas and Europe, Mami Wata was selected for Final Cut Workshop in Venice Film Festival 2021, and received post-production funding from Les Ateliers Yennenga in FESPACO sponsored by the Red Sea Film Fund, as well as the Swiss Fund Visions Sud Est. Obasi completed the entire post-production of Mami Wata in Paris, France and is set to world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition of Sundance Film Festival 2023.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Fiery Film
- Spouse
- C.J. likes to insert old random footage or clips into virtually all his productions.
- C.J likes the use of bright, colorful and often optically disconcerting imagery in scenes.
- All his films feature a main character breaking the fourth wall, by staring directly into the camera.
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