Jesca Ahimbisibwe experienced at first hand the inconveniences of traveling long distances to purchase tickets in order to catch the latest cinema blockbusters. The software engineer by profession is now making the process more seamless for other film enthusiasts with a tap of a button, and providing filmmakers a platform to harness the digital creative market.
Africa’s film and audiovisual industry currently employs an estimated 5 million people and account for US$ 5 billion in GDP across the continent. According to a 2021 UNESCO report, it has an estimated potential to create over 20 million jobs and contribute US$ 20 billion to Africa’s combined GDP.
However, this potential remains largely under-tapped in Uganda, despite the significant growth in the number of films produced. This is due to several factors including informal practices, low-tech adoption with hardly enough presence of Ugandan films online.
CinemaUg is hoping to solve these challenges through its innovative app and platform that is revamping the film industry and giving it a tech uplift.
“Digitizing local content gives it international exposure and it’s important for content distributors and aggregators that are coming in such as Netflix. When they are penetrating the Ugandan market, they will look at the information online and that’s where we are coming in.” Says Jesica Ahimbisibwe, CEO and Founder of CinemaUg.
CinemaUg is Uganda’s premier digital marketing and distribution platform for local films. It’s platform enables cinema and theatre ticket booking, as well as provides a platform for Ugandan film talents including actors, producers, and directors to get discovered and book jobs online.
Launched in 2016, Jesca says the platform originally started as an online ticket-booking platform for movies and theatre plays. Her own experience informed this epiphany.
Jesca was introduced to film at an early age. Coming from a family of 8, their father indulged them in a weekly cinema treat where they got to catch up on the latest film releases.
“At the time you couldn’t book a ticket online, you could walk to the cinema, buy your ticket, carry on your activities of the day and then go back in the evening to watch the movie.”
“So given the fact that I did software engineering and my background consuming film, I was like why don’t we create a digital platform where people book tickets online.”
A year later, Jesca and her team discovered yet another gap. There was hardly any information about Ugandan films documented online and film creatives were struggling with online visibility. They decided to expand their platform to showcase and market these talents online.
“Queen of Katwe was shot here in the country but I was told the producers had to go ground hunting for the local talents they worked with. Imagine if the talents were profiled online and then the casting director back in the US was just sent their digital CV links to check and confirm and then have an online interview, so by the time they come here, they have already gotten the talents they are looking for.”
The CinemaUg digital talent hub offers basic and premium packages, for actors, producers, and directors, among others that enable them take professional headshots and create digital CVs.
“A digital CV is important because not everyone in the creative industry can afford to create a website so CinemaUg creates for them a subdomain of their website. That way, when they want to pitch for a job, they can just share the link to their digital CV.”
Besides the digital talent platform, CinemaUg also provides marketing and distribution for local films through their digital platforms to reach a wider audience.
“A producer walks to us and they tell us they have a premier on a given date, so we start walking the digital marketing journey with them. Here, we identify the audience, characters and how we can profile them online. We also look at the trailer, the teaser, the synopsis, producer and directors and come up with a digital marketing strategy.”
Six years down the road, CinemaUg has grown to become one of the most reputable digital film brands with an audience reach of over 1.5 million people and over 11,000 app downloads.
For its remarkable contribution to the industry, it was awarded the Innovation of the Year award by the Uganda Film Festival awards and was recently nominated for the 2022 Outstanding Influential Application by Gaza Afrika awards.
CinemaUg has handled digital marketing for some of Uganda’s most successful films including Uganda’s first Netflix film ‘The Girl In The Yellow Jumper’ by Loukman Ali, KEMI by Kizito Samuel Saviour, November Tear, Tembele, among others.
It has also had partnerships with various major stakeholders in the film industry including Century Cinemax, the Uganda Film Festival, Ngalabi Short Film Festival, and the Uganda Cinema Night at the National Theater to showcase and promote local Ugandan films.
However, Jesca says, low-tech adoption pauses the biggest hurdle to the company’s growth.
“We deal with mobile money API so when someone transacts online, they do not get to receive a physical ticket but we generate what is called a digital ticket. It’s hard for some people to trust this but we are building the trust.
Also, the filmmakers still believe in the analogue way of doing things and moving door to door selling tickets.”
Despite these challenges, Jesca’s faith in the digital creative market remains unwavering, owing to the growing number of Ugandans with smartphones and using social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
“We have seen people create and sell their work online successfully. The digital audience is where the money is; it’s a bigger audience. So if you are a filmmaker and you can provide a link to someone to pay and watch your film, its more lucrative than selling physical copies.”
To further cement its position in the digital creative space, CinemaUg is looking at revamping its website later this year and is set to launch an online shop selling customized merchandise from different filmmakers.
“We communicate a language with our stories so we are hoping to transform the lives of the different creatives and how they think through our platform.”
