For an industry that produces hundreds of films each year, Nollywood has long struggled with one fundamental problem: documentation. While Hollywood benefits from platforms like IMDb and Letterboxd, many Nigerian films, particularly those released on YouTube, remain difficult to track, discover or archive.
That gap inspired Film Flux, a platform that curates Nollywood films available on YouTube, making them easier for audiences to find while directing viewers to creators' official channels. Since launching in September 2025, the app has grown into a library of Nigerian cinema, attracting more than 155,000 users across West Africa and Europe by late June.
Behind the platform is Nigerian software developer Anuoluwapo Sebiomo, who conceived the idea after discovering the scale of Nollywood's YouTube ecosystem while living in the UK.
Speaking with The Nollywood Reporter, Sebiomo discusses building Film Flux, the challenges of documenting African cinema and his ambition to create a comprehensive database for Nollywood.
Sebiomo's journey into technology began at university, where he first learned to code before exploring design and eventually returning to software development, "I started with coding back in university, moved into design, and eventually circled back to coding with the advent of AI," he says.
His first project was Wash Cast, an app that helped users decide when to do their laundry based on the weather. Although simple, it gave him the confidence to pursue larger ideas.
That search eventually led him to Nollywood's growing presence on YouTube, "I got to work doing extensive research until I stumbled upon the Nollywood movies on YouTube and I started curating it, and it has been a journey since then."
Despite studying pharmacy, Sebiomo never let his academic background limit his ambitions, "I wanted to document African stories as a thought I have been nurturing for a long time."
The response to Film Flux arrived almost immediately, "After I did the first version, I saw a spike in downloads and visits, which validated my thoughts that there is a whole world of Nollywood films on YouTube that people don't know about, especially if you are in the diaspora. But that might also be me speaking from my bubble."
As he explored the ecosystem further, one discovery stood out, "I was shocked by the number of views. Omoni Oboli has over 30 million views. Uche Montana has over 20 million views. It felt good to know people were really using this medium to promote their films and that it was working."
Rather than compete with YouTube, Film Flux complements it. The platform does not host films. Instead, it helps users discover titles before directing them to creators' official channels, "If a new movie is released, you get notified within five minutes. You get to see the preview and synopsis before clicking a link that takes you directly to the creator's page to watch."
Beyond simplifying discovery, Sebiomo believes Film Flux gives visibility to both established and emerging filmmakers by putting individual films ahead of channel popularity.
"The whole idea was to help people get rid of the noise of what to watch on YouTube," he says. "There are times you find channels you haven't known because I'm not prioritizing channels but the films themselves."
How Film Flux Works
For now, Film Flux is focused exclusively on Nollywood films released on YouTube, a decision Sebiomo says is driven by both accessibility and the availability of reliable data.
"I can access the data, trends and what people are watching. I have a chart that can tell me a movie is going to do very well," he says. "For instance, on Omoni Oboli TV, if she uploads on a Saturday evening rather than a Monday morning, it will likely do well."
Building the platform's catalogue proved less challenging than ensuring every title led viewers to its rightful owner.
At the start, Film Flux relied heavily on YouTube's API to source films. The bigger task was separating legitimate channels from those built on pirated content.
"The only problem I faced was finding very good channels and avoiding those with copyright issues because there are several times in Nollywood where we see a channel that reuploads another creator's videos."
That meant scrutinising channels before adding them to the platform, "For example, you see a channel that already has 200 movies but was created last month, which isn't possible," he explains. "Another thing I do is follow them on Instagram as well. Through the app's recommendations, I engage with more creators like that."
Although Film Flux was created to serve both audiences and filmmakers, Sebiomo says consumers have embraced it more quickly,"Consumers just want comfort. They don't want to stress or go through loops just to find something to watch," he says. "Because of its free nature, people gravitate towards YouTube, but then you have to sift through the noise."
The app addresses that problem by bringing discovery tools into one place. Users can save films to a watchlist, receive notifications when new titles are released and browse curated recommendations before being redirected to YouTube.
Winning over creators, however, has taken longer, "Only a few have acknowledged Film Flux as a platform itself, while more see it as a social media tool," Sebiomo says. "On the other hand, I've had conversations with some who accused me of pirating their content, which shocked me because the app doesn't host any movies."
Rather than competing with filmmakers, he says the platform is designed to support them by directing viewers to official uploads and reducing the visibility of unauthorised copies, "I do not blame the creators because there is a very high level of piracy in Nigeria where people have little regard for permission," he says. "There was an issue where someone blocked Bimbo Ademoye's monetization because they claimed the content was theirs."
Film Flux draws inspiration from platforms like IMDb, but Sebiomo believes existing databases still fall short when it comes to documenting African cinema, particularly films released on YouTube.
"At the moment, Film Flux is the only platform so far that has highly curated Nollywood movies on YouTube. IMDb highly inspired the direction for Film Flux, but the app is also heavily inspired by the Netflix interface and other streaming platforms."
While he admires IMDb's user experience, he believes Film Flux's biggest advantage lies in the quality of its data.
"They do a good job with user experience, which I borrowed into Film Flux, but the core difference is the data itself, which is the selling point," he says. "If you search a Nollywood YouTube film on Google, Film Flux might be the first point of contact. The app is prioritised and recognised by Google. The last time I checked, we had 4.03 million impressions."
Building Nollywood's Digital Library
Since its launch, Film Flux has expanded to include nearly 3,000 films across 127 YouTube channels, a catalogue Sebiomo continues to grow himself.
"There are still loads that I haven't encountered, so I dedicate my weekends to finding at least one new channel to add," he says. "I also added a feature where people can request to get their channels included."
For now, Sebiomo remains Film Flux's sole builder and financier, overseeing everything from product development to maintenance while planning the platform's next stage of growth.
His immediate ambition is to establish Film Flux as the leading destination for discovering African films on YouTube before expanding into a broader database for Nollywood.
"Success will look like being the number one curator of African YouTube storytelling for now, and then we expand," he says. "Once I have achieved that, I want Film Flux to become the main curator of the entire Nigerian movie industry, which is very bold to say."
He believes Nollywood's scale makes that ambition worthwhile, "I think after Bollywood, we are the next largest. I just know we are in the top three because we make a lot of films. I describe the app as a curated library for Nollywood films."
Beyond helping audiences find films, Sebiomo wants Film Flux to become a trusted source of industry data for filmmakers, producers and marketers, "I want to be the place where you can get direct and credible data and stats on the right actors to drive traffic," he says. "Omoni Oboli gets that right a lot, so I have all that helpful data."
Turning that vision into a sustainable business, however, will require more than technical expertise.
"It's hard to reach out to people for the sales pitch because I'm more on the technical side, but I'm working on this," he says. "I'll partner with someone who can handle that side of the business."
The platform has continued to build an audience beyond the app itself. As of late June, Film Flux had amassed 16,000 Instagram followers and 35,000 Facebook followers, numbers Sebiomo sees as further validation of the demand for curated Nollywood discovery.
"I'll get to a point where I'll stop building. I think I'm already there anyway and focus more on the business side of things."
For Sebiomo, Film Flux is more than a recommendation platform. It is an attempt to solve one of Nollywood's longstanding challenges by making its stories easier to find, document and preserve. If the platform succeeds, it could become an important piece of the industry's digital infrastructure, giving audiences, filmmakers and researchers a more complete record of Nigerian cinema.
