Award-winning filmmaker Leila Djansi has sparked conversation with a social media post urging African creatives to stop treating Netflix as the only benchmark for success.
She said the obsession with Netflix has blinded many filmmakers to the wealth of opportunities across other platforms. “You can land Hulu, Prime Video, or Apple TV deals, but if it’s not Netflix, you ‘haven’t made it,’” Djansi noted.
She recalled once being dismissed because her films weren’t on Netflix, a claim she laughed off. Her work, she explained, had already streamed there and now lives across U.S. platforms including Starz, BET, Apple TV, YouTube Movies (U.S. only), and AMC’s AllBlk, which currently holds the rights. That process, she said, is what industry insiders call a “waterfall.”
The filmmaker argued that treating Netflix as validation is a trap that stifles creativity. Instead of chasing the same platform, she urged African filmmakers to explore other avenues and innovate. “Netflix is NOT validation. It’s not the win. It doesn’t mean you’ve ‘arrived,’” she wrote, pointing out that Prime Video is striking multimillion-dollar overall deals and that Hulu, Max, and other platforms also carry world-class content.
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Djansi also called out audiences, particularly in Ghana, for fueling the obsession. With what she described as “paltry” Netflix subscriptions in the country, she questioned why viewers often demand that films be on the service before supporting them. “If a filmmaker posts a link to their film, don’t go asking ‘Is it on Netflix.’ Is watching on Netflix going to change the storyline or something? Do better! Support!” she urged.
Sharing her own journey “from Ho to Hollywood,” Djansi explained that breaking through required both preparation and seizing opportunity. “Do you know how I broke in? I took a VP to lunch. That was it. Food. But I also had a movie that was internationally appealing. I was prepared to meet opportunity,” she said.
Highlighting examples such as Zambia’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl being distributed by A24, she reminded filmmakers that global breakthroughs are possible with persistence and vision. “Everything is possible if you put in the effort,” she added, poking fun at critics with a quip that maybe resistance to possibility comes not from logic, but from “village people.”
See her post below.
