The Women Behind Nollywood’s 51,000-Person Guinness World Record
How Nora Awolowo, Fatimah Binta Gimsay and a team of filmmakers turned Black Market into a record-breaking cinematic event.
# The Women Behind Nollywood’s 51,000-Person Guinness World Record
How Nora Awolowo, Fatimah Binta Gimsay and a team of filmmakers turned Black Market into a record-breaking cinematic event.
Feature | Nollywood | September 2026
On Saturday, September 26, 2026, more than 51,000 people gathered at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos to watch a Nigerian film. By the time the screening ended, Nollywood had a new Guinness World Record. But behind the historic crowd was a team of filmmakers whose ambition extended beyond making another movie.
At the centre of the achievement were women working across different parts of the industry: Nora Awolowo, the producer behind Black Market; Fatimah Binta Gimsay, the film's director and co-writer; and Damilola Osikoya, whose event production team helped turn an ambitious film premiere into a record-breaking live experience.
Their achievement was not the work of one filmmaker or one production company. It was the result of a collaboration involving filmmakers, actors, production partners, sponsors, distributors and thousands of people who showed up to participate in a moment of Nigerian cinema history. 
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## Nora Awolowo: The producer behind the ambition
For Nora Awolowo, the record-breaking screening was another milestone in the development of Rixel Studios, the production company behind Black Market.
The film was Rixel Studios' second feature following Red Circle, released in 2025. With Black Market, the company set out to combine an ambitious crime thriller with an equally ambitious theatrical event, bringing together a large ensemble cast and an unprecedented audience at a single venue. 
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Awolowo had described the project as part of the studio's commitment to innovation and creative storytelling. Speaking ahead of the premiere, she explained that the team was drawing on lessons from its previous production while looking for new ways to approach filmmaking.
For a young production outfit, the project represented a substantial undertaking. The responsibility extended beyond getting a film made: it involved working with creative collaborators, production partners and distributors to bring the project to a national audience.
The record attempt was announced months before the screening, giving the production a clear public ambition. Rather than relying exclusively on a conventional cinema rollout, the team planned to assemble tens of thousands of people at Tafawa Balewa Square and make the screening itself a defining part of the film's identity.
That decision placed the producer at the intersection of filmmaking and audience mobilisation. The movie had to give people a reason to attend, while the event had to deliver an experience on a scale that a conventional premiere could not accommodate.
Awolowo's role, however, was part of a much larger production effort. The film's official credits also recognise Nicole Ofoegbu as a producer, with several other filmmakers serving as executive and co-producers. 
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## Fatimah Binta Gimsay: Bringing the story to the screen
[Fatima Binta Gimsay Got Her Start by Asking : Open Country Mag](https://images.openai.com/static-rsc-4/MVWDAZmXlSSY2xzOIlPJEDGBj-jW6Lxrs5nQAMfmRHzTX17CBq9YRMfW8fVlOWYAEEHe2-8_mfGRARmqFYgfBSNoLQPvoeiZUFZPFVHMhybgxP4AauAy0mWhUFmfcxtsUjCE_mCZHD4-oqSXHggGhJxYjGmst7T-jHVoqg06Lp58a3H-Uywr8SZm2eAdIVkd?purpose=fullsize)
Fatimah Binta Gimsay
Director and co-writer of Black Market
The creative force responsible for shaping the story and directing the ensemble crime thriller.
While Awolowo helped drive the production's ambitions, Fatimah Binta Gimsay was responsible for bringing Black Market to life as a film.
Gimsay directed the feature and co-wrote the screenplay with Abdul Tijani-Ahmed. The production was filmed in Abeokuta, Ogun State, and brought together a large cast of established actors and emerging performers. 
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The story centres on a group of market women operating a cross-border fuel-smuggling business. Their operation begins to unravel after a rival kidnaps the daughter of one of the women, forcing the group into a dangerous confrontation.
The premise gives the film an opportunity to explore survival, family, loyalty and the informal economies that emerge under economic pressure. At the same time, its ensemble structure places considerable demands on the director, who must establish distinct characters and relationships while maintaining the momentum of a crime thriller.
Gimsay described the production as a collaborative challenge, saying the team had been intentional about making an entertaining film and had worked with people she considered well suited to the project. 
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The significance of her contribution extends beyond the size of the premiere. A Guinness record can establish the scale of an audience, but it is the film itself that gives that audience something to gather around.
For Gimsay, Black Market became an opportunity to introduce her feature filmmaking to an exceptionally large audience, with the director's work forming the creative foundation of the entire undertaking.
## Damilola Osikoya: Turning a film premiere into a record-breaking event
Damilola Osikoya
Event Production Producer
CEO of Switch Visuals, the event's production partner.
A film screening involving more than 51,000 people presents a challenge that is fundamentally different from producing a feature film. It requires coordinating an enormous live audience, technical operations, partners, logistics and a screening that must satisfy the requirements of the record attempt.
This was the responsibility of Damilola Osikoya, CEO of Switch Visuals, who was credited as Event Production Producer for the screening. Switch Visuals was the event's production partner, distinct from the companies responsible for making the film. 
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Osikoya's involvement included bringing sponsors and partners on board and working closely on the event's budget and expenditure. Among the partners acknowledged were Zenith Bank, Oraimo, Johnnie Walker Blonde, the Lagos State Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and Swoop. 
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The scale of the assignment was considerable. Organisers had set a target of at least 50,000 simultaneous attendees, and long queues formed around Tafawa Balewa Square as people arrived hours ahead of the screening.
Reflecting on the event, Osikoya described it as a live production with 51,000 moving parts and only one opportunity to get it right. She also emphasised the importance of the sponsors, partners and the Black Market team in making the event possible. 
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Her contribution highlights an often overlooked aspect of large-scale cinema events: the infrastructure behind the spectacle. A record-breaking audience cannot be assembled through filmmaking alone. It requires event production, coordination, financial backing and the ability to execute a plan at scale.
The achievement therefore belongs not only to the people who made the film, but also to the production professionals who created the conditions for tens of thousands of people to watch it together.
## The cast, the partners and the audience
The film's ensemble cast was another important part of the undertaking.
Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman plays Zimuzo, the leader of the group, while Omowunmi Dada portrays Adesua, the mother whose daughter's kidnapping sets the central conflict in motion. Lateef Adedimeji, Scarlet Gomez, Teniola Aladese, Susan Pwajok, Ibrahim Yekini, Uzor Arukwe, Folagade Banks and other performers complete the ensemble. 
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Beyond the actors, the project brought together Rixel Studios, FilmOne Studios, Signet Ring Studios and Switch Visuals Production. FilmOne's involvement connected the production to distribution, while the event's sponsors and partners helped support the record attempt.
The audience, however, was the final and indispensable part of the equation.
Organisers had initially targeted 50,000 simultaneous viewers. The qualifying attendance exceeded that figure, with Guinness World Records confirming more than 51,000 people who watched the film from beginning to end. Organisers estimated that the overall crowd, including people attending the wider entertainment programme, was around 64,000. 
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The distinction is important. The record was not simply for everyone who visited Tafawa Balewa Square that day; it was based on the audience that fulfilled the screening requirements.
The previous record of 43,624 had been set in 2015 by the Filipino biographical film Felix Manalo at the Philippine Arena. With Black Market, a Nigerian production surpassed that benchmark and brought the record to Lagos. 
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## What the record means for Nollywood
The achievement raises questions about the possibilities of theatrical distribution and event cinema in Nigeria.
For years, Nollywood's international visibility has grown through streaming platforms, cinema releases and the global circulation of Nigerian stories. The Black Market screening introduced another dimension: the ability to build a major public event around a locally produced film.
The record demonstrates the scale of audience mobilisation achieved by this particular project. It does not, by itself, establish the film's eventual box-office performance, profitability or long-term audience reception. Those outcomes will depend on its theatrical release and subsequent distribution.
Nevertheless, the event offers a case study in how filmmaking, marketing, sponsorship and live production can work together. It also brings attention to the range of professionals whose contributions are necessary to make large-scale film projects possible.
For Awolowo, Gimsay and Osikoya, the achievement represents three different areas of filmmaking and entertainment production converging around a single project: producing the film, directing its story and executing the event.
And while the Guinness certificate recognises the record, the work behind it involved many more people than the three women at the centre of this story.
On September 26, Nollywood did more than gather an extraordinary audience in Lagos. It demonstrated what a coordinated team of filmmakers, production professionals, partners and audiences could accomplish when a film became the centre of a shared national event.
Black Market now moves beyond its historic premiere and into its theatrical journey. Its record-breaking night is already part of Nigerian cinema history. What follows will determine how that achievement translates into the film's wider commercial and cultural life.