Judith Audu is one of Nollywood’s top players. She’s an actress, model, blogger, on-air personality and movie producer. She has won awards as an actress and producer. Now, she has taken on one of the biggest challenges in movie making- directing.
Movie directors are an exalted and special breeds in films. Sadly, there aren’t that many female directors. Even in America’s Hollywood, which is the movie capital of the world, female directors have yet to be fully accepted.
So, it’s not surprising that the same scenario plays out in Nigeria’s Nollywood. But just like Hollywood, female directors are also trying to come out in Nollywood and their case received a massive boost recently with the success of the movie, The Wedding Party.
For those who don’t know, The Wedding Party was directed by a woman, Kemi Adetiba, and it became the highest grossing Nollywood movie of all time, until its sequel, The Wedding Party 2: Destination Dubai, overtook its gross.
It’s not easy being away from home for too long, but I try to make sure everything is available at home, and I communicate every day. In all, I thank God for my husband. He is highly supportive and reminds me to focus on my career whenever I complain about being away from home
In a nutshell, Adetiba’s unprecedented success with The Wedding Party has further inspired female directors to come out in Nollywood and one of them is Judith Audu.
Having already amassed a lot of experience as an actress and then a producer, she has finally taken the bull by the horn, as a director, with her debut directorial effort, Mirabel, which she’s currently working on and since all her projects are always successful, it’s certain that this will rub off on Mirabel, a short movie.
Speaking about her directing effort, she says, “This is a new terrain for me and I’m only too glad to take on the responsibility. I’ve never been afraid of a challenge. So, I urge all my fans to look out for this short movie.”
Her first production was ‘Not Right’, also a short movie, and she followed it up with ‘Just Not Married’, which had the honour of being chosen for screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, Canada, and several other movie festivals worldwide.
Audu, however, bares her mind on the notion that Nollywood is all about quantity, and not quality.
According to her, “Nollywood is the third largest film producing industry in the world! The quantity has brought our movie producing market to the eyes of the world, which, whether you like it or not, has made people to recognise the Nigerian movie industry and when they talk about movies, Nigeria must be mentioned. And the advent of cinema culture has triggered creativity and standard productions back into the industry, which was the same thing that was obtainable years ago. It was the cinema, too, that did it then because I remember all the community cinemas were functioning and we used to go and watch films in cinemas like Satellite Cinema, Pen Cinema, etc. I would say our industry is growing and moving towards the right direction. There will always be demand for both standard and non-standard movies, as the audience exists for these two categories and with a country like ours and Africa at large, the grassroots people will always yearn for something they can relate with.”
One of the problems women in entertainment are confronted with is marriage. They find it hard to get married as they are seen as loose and without morals, and some who do get married usually end up experiencing a loud crash.
But Audu, who is married to a Dane, Morten Foght, has that privilege of being a successfully married woman.
She has been able to make her marriage work, despite her being always on location away from her home.
“It’s not easy being away from home for too long, but I try to make sure everything is available at home, and I communicate every day. In all, I thank God for my husband. He is highly supportive and reminds me to focus on my career whenever I complain about being away from home. I’m grateful and lucky to have a man that believes so much in me and pushes me to be the best at what I do,” she says.
Betraying her passion for Hollywood, after being asked what she likes to change about the Nigerian film industry, Audu says, ”Change? I’m thinking more in the line of improving and raising the standard in the industry. If I’m in a position to influence what can be done from an actor’s perspective, I will use funds got to build an international standard acting school that will be affordable with professional teachers. From a producer’s perspective, I will build more cinemas to increase distribution channels. This way, producers can make money back in good time; which will translate into producing more standard movies and paying well for services.”
Above all, what does she hope to achieve in her entertainment career? She says, “I want to be able to become a voice of reason, to be able to change people’s lives with the stories we tell; not just to entertain them, but educate them; make them better people; bring joy into people’s homes whenever they tune in and see me on their screen; and become a good ambassador of my country.”
