The Story⚡
Two of Nollywood’s most significant recent films are screening at CANEX WKND this November. One premiered at TIFF. The other won at AFRIFF. Here’s what you need to know.
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CANEX WKND 2026 runs November 5–8 at the National Theatre’s Wole Soyinka Centre for Cultural & Creative Arts, Afreximbank’s flagship creative-industries gathering, making its first stop in Lagos. Attendance is free, with registration open at wknd.canex.africa.
For the full four-day programme, see our earlier breakdown: Canex Wknd 2026 Is Coming to the National Theatre Lagos — Here Is Everything Happening Day by Day – ShockNG
Day 3, Saturday, November 7, is where film gets its moment. The day is built around the Africa Jollof Wars Competition 3.0 and a live demonstration on scaling Global Africa’s fast food industry, before closing out with the CANEX WKND 2026 Concert, and slotted into that day are screenings of two of Nollywood’s most talked-about recent films: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and I Do Not Come to You by Chance. Here’s what audiences at the National Theatre will watch.
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti opens with the 1978 Nigerian Army raid on the Kalakuta Republic, the home of Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti. During the raid, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Fela’s mother, is thrown from a second-floor window by soldiers and hospitalised with severe injuries. From her hospital bed, a French journalist interviews her, and the film uses that interview as the hinge into a flashback narrated by an older Funmilayo.
The story traces her from childhood in Abeokuta, where she becomes the first female student at Abeokuta Grammar School, through her marriage to Israel Ransome-Kuti, and into her work as an educator. When she witnesses the unfair treatment of Abeokuta’s working-class women, she forms the Abeokuta Women’s Union, taking on both patriarchal tradition and colonial authority, activism that would define the rest of her life and, decades later, put her in the path of soldiers raiding her son’s compound.
Cast: Kehinde Bankole as the younger Funmilayo, Joke Silva as the older Funmilayo, Ibrahim Suleiman as Israel Ransome-Kuti, Jide Kosoko, Dele Odule, Omowumi Dada, Adebayo Salami, and Keppy Ekpenyong.
Crew: Directed and produced by Bolanle Austen-Peters, written by Tunde Babalola, produced under BAP Productions.
Release and recognition: Released May 17, 2024, with a running time of 91 minutes. The film screened at the 12th edition of the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), where it won Best Overall Feature Film and Best Screenplay.
I Do Not Come to You by Chance
I Do Not Come to You by Chance follows Kingsley, a bright university graduate with no job prospects and a family depending on him. Burdened by that responsibility, he turns to his charismatic, wealthy uncle for help and is slowly pulled into his uncle’s email-scam operation. What begins as survival becomes complicity, and the film follows how far Kingsley is willing to go, and what it costs him, once he’s inside.
The film is adapted from Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s acclaimed 2009 novel of the same name, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book and drew international attention for its satirical, unflinching look at Nigeria’s “419” email-fraud economy.
Cast: Led by Paul Nnadiekwe as Kingsley, alongside Genevieve Nnaji.
Crew: Directed by Ishaya Bako, reuniting with Nnaji eight years after their 2015 collaboration, Road to Yesterday.
Festival run: The film has had an unusually strong run on the international circuit for a Nollywood title, premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2023, followed by screenings at AFRIFF, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2024, the BlackStar Film Festival, and the Glasgow Film Festival in 2025.
Why This Pairing Makes Sense
Both films are rooted in real Nigerian social history, even where their tones diverge sharply. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti is a biographical account of resistance against colonial and military power; I Do Not Come to You by Chance is a satire of the economic desperation that drives Nigeria’s fraud economy. Placed on the same programme, they read less like a random double bill and more like a statement about the range CANEX wants Nollywood represented by, from historical reverence to social satire, both grounded in the same country’s real conditions.
In Summary
Both screenings take place on Day 3 of CANEX WKND 2026, Saturday, November 7, at the National Theatre. For anyone who has only heard about either film secondhand, this is a rare chance to catch both on the big screen, back-to-back, in Lagos.
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