Seyi Babatope

Seyi Babatope is a Nigerian American Filmmaker who has worked tirelessly to merge his Hollywood training to the potentials that exists in the Nigerian Film Industry. Having lived in Nigeria during his formative years, he moved to the U.K and L.A to study, work and live, obtaining a degree in Cinema and Television Arts from California State University Northridge, developing his filmmaking knowledge at the onset as an intern at A Band Apart Productions owned by Lawrence Bender and Quintin Tarantino to being taken under the tutelage of Jake Scott, son of legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott. As an artist in constant pursuit of excellence, Seyi worked in L.A on film and TV sets, he also shot commercials, one of such was for Range Rover. Constantly visiting Nigeria his home country, Seyi was at the forefront of the wave of video production that put Nigerian Music on the global map as far back as the early 2000s. His ability to bring together skilled talent came to bear with the award winning music videos he shot for Sauce kid and Ikechukwu (both Nigerian Americans). Ikechukwu's 'Wind Am Well' took home an MTV Music video award in 2008. One of such skilled Talent on the crew side is Jason Mann who accompanied Seyi to Nigeria to film projects and went on to win Project Greenlight an initiative set up by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for HBO. Seyi returned fully to Nigeria about 6 years ago and made his first of five films so far titled 'When Love Happens' which was an instant hit and released in 4 countries around the world including the U.K. When Love Happens went on to get award nominations, festival selections and even the first of its kind Licensing on the world's largest internet TV platform Netflix. Seyi has gone on to make 4 other feature films (one of them a family film titled Lunch Time Heroes), TV series, Music videos and TV commercials since. Having spent a lot of time advocating for Nigerian cinematic expression on the global stage, Seyi is well positioned to help bring to life the authentic Nigerian and African voice to the screens. He is passionate about riding on the huge momentum that the continent is witnessing and wants to ensure it lasts and becomes a main staple on the global calendar for years to come