Omoni Oboli on Her Christmas Affair with MTN

From November 13, Nigerians can look forward to a ‘Yello’ Christmas affair as MTN Nigeria partners with filmmaker Omoni Oboli to unveil seven Christmas movies on YouTube as it promotes Nigerian storytelling and makes local entertainment more accessible. The films were announced at a Christmas Movie Mixer attended by actors, filmmakers, content creators and other industry stakeholders. MTN Nigeria’s General Manager, Consumer Segments, Idowu Adesokan, said the initiative reflects the company’s commitment to supporting the creative industry. “At MTN, we recognise that connectivity goes beyond access to the internet. It is an enabler of creativity, innovation and economic opportunity. We believe Nigeria’s creative industry has enormous potential to entertain, create jobs, build businesses and take our stories to the world,” he said. The initiative also draws on MTN’s strategic partnership with YouTube to expand creators’ reach through marketing campaigns. YouTube Consultant, Berene Jankovich-Besan, said the goal was to drive traffic to creators’ channels and grow their subscriber base. For Oboli, MTN’s YouTube data bundles will also make streaming the films more affordable for audiences. In this conversation, she speaks about the partnership and the making of the seven Christmas movies. When exactly did this conversation start, because producing seven films for Christmas can be a lot, and how long did it take? My partnership with MTN didn’t start today. We partnered together on ‘Love in Every Word’. So when I went back to them, I said, “Let’s do Christmas together.” They said yes. Production took a couple of months. We’ve been working with scriptwriters, coming up with stories and all of that. It’s been at least four or five months since we started working on the project. Why seven films? Because I wanted to do more. I wanted people to really get into that Christmas spirit. That’s how I get into the Christmas spirit: by watching Christmas movies. What are some of the themes explored in the films? Love, connection, forgiveness, family, togetherness. All the things that make Christmas a special season. How do you address concerns that most Christmas films do not feel original to Nigerians? Are there local elements in the films that bring out this authenticity? Christmas is very original to us because we’re celebrating the birth of our King, and Christmas is that season that reminds us of everything that Jesus represents, which is love and forgiveness, because He came to forgive us for our sins. It is togetherness and family. While we may not have the unique harmattan that comes with the Christmas season, no thanks to climate change, we have other elements like the Christmas trees and visiting families that make the season original to us.