The Cross Continental Forum 2025 gathered global south filmmakers, producers, and storytellers from across the diaspora in Barbados for 5 days of dialogue on international collaboration, creative financing, and culturally rooted storytelling. With attendees from Canada, South Africa, the UK, and the Caribbean, the forum created space for meaningful exchange and future partnerships.
Among those in attendance was Femi Oyeniran, the Nigerian-British actor and filmmaker best known for his role as “Moony” in Kidulthood and for directing the feature film It’s A Lot. BUFF recently announced that FEMI will be the recipient of their honorary award in October. We caught up with him during the forum to learn more about what brought him to Barbados and what’s next on his creative slate. Femi also gave ALT a little juice on his Darcus Beese project!!!
ALT: So Femi, we’re here in Barbados at the Cross-Continental Forum. Can you tell us why you came to the forum?
Femi: I mean, I came to the forum because they accepted my application ( laugh) and I was interested in building a network and international filmmaking. There are people here from Canada, from South Africa — and it was a very nice way for people to get to know a little bit about me and also for me to get to know a little bit about them.
ALT: Wonderful. And if you had two takeaways from the past four days, what would those be? We’ve talked a lot about pitching, finance, storytelling…
Femi: I think for me, the main thing that I took away was a greater understanding of co-production. It’s not something that I’ve really looked into seriously. So for me, it’s about understanding that landscape a little better — and I definitely need to do more work into the legalistic element of it. But just getting an overview of co-production, it’s been great for that.
ALT: And for our audience back in the UK, is there anything you’re working on that you’d like to share?
Femi: I’m about to begin a documentary about one of the most successful Black music execs to ever live in the UK — Darkest Beese OBE, who’s the son of Darcus Howe. We’re hopefully starting work on that next month. And we’ve got a bunch of other projects in the pipeline, but the Darkest Beast project is slated to go into production soon.
ALT: Wonderful, Femi. Thank you so much for talking to us here at the Forum.
📲 For more interviews and cultural insight, visit www.alt-africa.com
Find out more about the Cross Continental Forum HERE
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