Damola Layonu and Nollywood’s Canadian Pathway

In October 2025, I spent over an hour in conversation with Damola Layonu, a Nigerian film professional based in Oshawa, Ontario, about an hour east of Toronto, Canada. Layonu trained as a lawyer and worked in both Nigeria and Canada before co-founding Snag Productions with his wife, Chiagoziem Obi, a distribution company that, in his words, is “on a mission to make Black and African cinema mainstream.” What stood out even then was his position: a Nigerian now operating inside Canada’s highly structured media environment, attempting to build one of the few practical routes for African films to reach North American audiences.

Since our October conversation, Snag’s Canadian distribution experiment has accelerated more quickly than initially anticipated.

From Nigeria to Canada

Layonu’s route into film was indirect. He earned an LLB in Law from the University of Kent (2006–2009) and a Master’s in Computer, Communications and Media Law from Queen Mary University of London (2013–2014). After returning to Nigeria, he began practicing law before joining Spinlet, the Lagos-based digital music platform once described as “Africa’s iTunes.”

In 2016, he entered film distribution through FilmOne Entertainment, Nigeria’s leading theatrical distributor and exhibitor. Layonu managed the 20th Century Fox account, overseeing Nigerian releases of major Hollywood blockbusters including “Logan,” “Alita: Battle Angel,” and “Assassin’s Creed.” Between 2016 and 2019, it was, he said, his introduction to “how a movie travels from the studio to the cinema.”

When his wife emigrated to Canada, he followed in 2019. Expecting to continue in distribution, he found a system far more insular than Nigeria’s. After completing a Film and TV Business diploma at Centennial College (2021–2022), he joined Toronto-based Elevation Pictures, the largest independent distributor, in theatrical sales. He left in 2023 to build his own structure.

“I had seen the gap,” he said. “If I wanted to make or distribute films featuring Black and African characters, who was going to shepherd them? There was no go-to when it came to Black and African film.”

Launching Snag Productions

Layonu incorporated Snag Productions initially to develop African-centered stories, later expanding into distribution after realizing how few Black or African titles reached Canadian screens. In October 2024, the company released “Farmer’s Bride” (Nigeria theatrical release: 27 September 2024) in two Landmark Cinemas locations — Whitby (in the Durham Region) and Kanata (Ottawa) — one of the few circuits open to the experiment. Attendance fell short of expectations but proved the logistics workable. The experience demonstrated that Landmark Cinemas was open to continuing the experiment, spurred by Snag’s commitment, passion, and knowledge of the core Nollywood audience demographic.

Since then, Snag has programmed at least six films, including “Ori Rebirth” (Nigeria release 1 May 2025), “Dark Path (Ona Okunkun)” (Canada screenings 15–21 August 2025), “Ireke: Rise of the Maroons” (2025), and “Hakeem: Seeking Justice” (Nigeria release 1 August 2025). Two came via FilmOne, one through BUFF Studios UK (founded by British-Nigerian producer Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe), and others directly from independent filmmakers.

Each release begins with securing a venue — half the work, as Layonu describes it — followed by delivery of digital prints, certification, localized promotion, and revenue-split negotiations with exhibitors (which typically comes first as part of securing a venue). From Snag’s share, marketing and delivery costs are deducted before remitting the balance to independent producers or rightsholders, as the case may be. Only “Ori Rebirth” had met internal revenue targets by the end of 2025, yet every title added audience data and institutional familiarity.

After our October interview, Snag’s next release materially shifted the scale of that experiment. Nigerian superstar Funke Akindele’s latest work, “Behind the Scenes,” opened in Canada on January 16, 2026, securing bookings in 19 locations — the widest theatrical run for a Nollywood title in the country to date. In the weeks leading up to release, pre-sale screenings sold out in 10 of the 19 locations, prompting the addition of extra shows. By mid-January, cinemas had extended the film to full-week runs in 17 locations after determining that maintaining the title on screens was more economical than rotating it out on a day-by-day basis.

According to Layonu, the film grossed over $100,000 CAD (approximately $75,000 USD) in its opening weekend — achieved entirely without Cineplex, Canada’s dominant exhibition chain, and despite Landmark having no locations in Toronto. Nigeria’s National Orientation Agency later reported the film earned $111,256 in Canada and $190,249 across North America, confirming it as the highest-grossing Nollywood release in the region.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, FilmOne Entertainment announced the film crossed ₦2.4 billion by late January, making it the first Nollywood production to surpass ₦2 billion (approximately $1.7 million USD) at the Nigerian box office.

“Releasing a Nollywood film in Canada is tough,” Layonu said. “But if your film makes money, the cinemas will notice. They’ll want a piece of that pie.”

Canada’s exhibition structure continues to compound the difficulty. Multiplexes like Cineplex and Landmark devote nearly all screens to U.S. studio releases. Independent or world-cinema slots are limited and typically reserved for festival winners or South Asian diaspora titles. Layonu recalled being told by one exhibitor: “Unless a film wins or competes at Cannes, Berlin, or Venice, or fits neatly into categories, it’s unlikely to be booked.”

With an estimated 200,000 Nigerians living in Canada (2021 Census), programmers have long questioned whether a reliable audience exists. Snag’s screenings across not only the Greater Toronto Area but cities like Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Montreal, and Calgary have begun to produce measurable attendance routines, driven by strategic and targeted marketing as well as word-of-mouth within diaspora networks.

Distribution as Infrastructure and Cultural Continuity

Layonu sees distribution as a missing layer in Canada’s film economy as it relates to Africa. “Back home, Nigerian releases have press following them — interviews, premieres, podcasts,” he said. “Here, even Canadian filmmakers complain that local outlets rarely cover their work. We want to bridge that.” Snag now pairs screenings with community partnerships, targeted outreach, and localized promotion, aiming to convert diaspora interest into recurring cinema habits instead of trading on one-off events, as has often been the case.

His long-term ambition is functional: “the Black A24,” as he put it — a distributor investing early in relationships and treating filmmakers as partners. While most Snag releases to date are Nigerian films, he resists the label of a Nollywood distributor. “Our focus is Black and African film,” he said. “Not all Black people are African, and not all Africans are Black.” Future acquisitions are expected from Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt, connecting African and Caribbean communities within Canada’s multicultural framework.

As a parent of two children, ages five and two, the work is personal.

“We might be the last generation with any real attachment to Nollywood unless we plant those seeds now,” he said. “If I’m not deliberate, my kids will just grow up on YouTube.”

Canada’s Policy Gap and the Diaspora Workaround

Canada has more than 60 official audiovisual co-production treaties, but only three with African countries: South Africa (1997), Senegal (2000), and Morocco (2012); none with Nigeria. The absence of a Nigeria treaty continues to shape Layonu’s operations. As a producer, he can access Telefilm Canada or Canada Media Fund programs that require treaty status, but not when working with Nigerian co-producers, except with express approval from the Minister of Arts & Culture. Additionally, releases cannot qualify for federal tax-credit incentives. The result is an entirely private pathway — negotiated screenings, direct deals with exhibitors, and diaspora-driven marketing.

Across Africa, 2025 was defined by a few states formalizing what Canada and Nigeria still lack. Côte d’Ivoire’s co-production treaty with Belgium entered into force in June. Nigeria announced its first treaty with Brazil earlier in the year, to name two. Within that context, Snag’s privately built bridge functions as a micro-version of these official frameworks — small, self-financed, but already operational. “Proof of concept for readiness,” as Layonu described it. “We keep saying we need a co-production treaty,” he added. “Fine. But treaties don’t happen in a vacuum. Someone has to build the ground first.”

He outlined three fronts for that groundwork: training access, collaborating with Canadian film schools and internships; production alignment by packaging African projects to meet Canadian compliance standards; and policy engagement with entities such as the Black Screen Office (an advocacy organization for Black screen-industry professionals) and the Canada Media Fund’s Diverse Languages Program (which backs content in languages beyond English, French, and Indigenous languages) to ensure African creators are visible within official datasets.

These initiatives remain modest in scale, but they mirror Canada’s stated cultural-export priorities around inclusion and market expansion.

Planning Forward

Layonu’s immediate goals are now clearly time-bound. Snag plans to maintain a cadence of roughly one theatrical release per month across 2026, stage a Black History Month virtual showcase in February, and move forward with development on its first in-house co-production, “Hanne & Ciroma,” written and directed by Umar Turaki and co-produced by Layonu, Turaki, and a third player, Ulan Garba Matta, a Berlinale Talents alumnus.

He also intends to attend Cannes 2026 and participate in Canadian and European industry markets to pursue additional platform partnerships.

Each of these steps follows the same operating principle: compact, testable units that generate concrete data. He describes it simply as “practical before symbolic.”

That pragmatism speaks to the structure of the current global screen economy. As Akoroko’s full-year 2025 assessment observed, accelerated consolidation secures control at the top of the market, while independent and national efforts operate in fragmented conditions below. Snag Productions occupies that lower tier — an under-capitalized but increasingly visible operation building cross-border functionality while institutional structures continue to lag.

Layonu’s argument for continuity extends beyond commerce. He frames the absence of African films in Canadian cinemas as a question of long-term cultural visibility. “We talk about representation,” he said, “but representation only lasts if there’s infrastructure.”

That infrastructure — consistent exhibition, distribution knowledge, and credible data — is now being tested in real time. If even a limited number of African films each year can demonstrate predictable performance in Canada, local distributors, promoters, and exhibitors may begin to recalibrate assumptions.

“At that stage,” Layonu said, “we’re not asking for favors. We’re providing content that fills seats.”The record success of “Behind the Scenes” is yet another datapoint.

The broader policy environment supports the urgency of Snag’s ongoing “test.” African institutions are beginning to publish public data, from Côte d’Ivoire’s box-office reporting to Senegal’s revived FOPICA fund public communication, and Sierra Leone’s creative-economy mapping, to name a few. Canada’s formal connection to these systems remains limited. Until official models arise, the task of demonstrating readiness continues to fall on individual operators working across borders.

Layonu describes the moment plainly: “The audience habits are shifting fast. Either we act now, or those links to African film culture disappear.”

Snag Productions remains a small operation with two partners, a growing slate of releases, and modest margins, but it has established a mappable entry point where none previously existed. Its films now appear on Canadian cinema schedules, its audience data is beginning to inform exhibitor decisions, and its founder’s experience across Nigerian and Canadian distribution systems allows him to operate with fluency in both contexts.

For now, Layonu is still in the process of proving that a sustainable Canadian pathway for African films can exist, even as his work has already begun to demonstrate that it can, albeit at a small scale. The unresolved issue now increasingly lies with institutions — exhibitors, funders, policymakers — and whether they are willing to recognize, support, or align with a setup that is already functioning, instead of continuing to treat African cinema on an international stage as exceptional, marginal, or speculative.

In other words, the burden of proof is beginning to shift. The experiment is moving the question from possibility toward institutional recognition.

For more exclusive African screen sector analysis and insights, subscribe now (7-day free trial and localized pricing available in select markets): https://akoroko.com/localpricing/