Lights Out Goes Continental: Inside the First-Ever Multi-Nation Theatrical Distribution Deal for a Cameroonian Film

When Check Sense Productions came to African Pictures International with a vision for Lights Out's international rollout, the goal was never just a premiere. It was history. Here is how a Cameroonian psychological drama became a continental event — and what it means for African cinema distribution.

Some films find their audience. Others build one.

Lights Out, the psychological drama directed by Enah Johnscott and produced by Carista Asonganyi of Check Sense Productions, is the kind of film that arrives at exactly the right moment. A taut, emotionally layered story starring Wale Ojo, Shaffy Bello, and Syndy Emade — it carries the weight of serious cinema and the ambition of a production team that has never been content with small horizons.

Carista Asonganyi knows what large horizons look like. Her previous credit, Half Heaven (2022), was Cameroon's official submission to the 96th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. When she brought Lights Out to African Pictures International and said she wanted to do something no Cameroonian film had ever done before — the only question was how far.

The answer was seven countries.

The Deal

In early 2026, African Pictures International confirmed its role as strategic and communications partner for the international rollout of Lights Out — supporting what would become the first-ever multi-nation theatrical distribution deal for a Cameroonian film.

In partnership with Majestic Cinemas, Lights Out will screen theatrically across seven African nations: Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Congo, Senegal, Chad, and Madagascar. The release is dual-language — available in both English and French — spanning Anglophone and Francophone Africa in a single, coordinated continental event.

For context: most Cameroonian films, even exceptional ones, struggle to secure consistent theatrical distribution within their home country. A seven-nation release — structured, coordinated, and dual-language — is not just unprecedented for Cameroonian cinema. It is a model that barely exists anywhere on the continent at this scale.

Why This Matters Beyond the Film

The significance of this deal extends well beyond Lights Out itself.

African cinema has long suffered from a structural problem that has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with infrastructure. Brilliant films get made. They screen at festivals — sometimes even at major international ones. Then they disappear. The theatrical ecosystem that would allow those films to earn revenue, build audiences, and generate the kind of commercial track record that attracts future investment simply does not exist in most African markets at the scale it should.

What Check Sense Productions and Majestic Cinemas have built with Lights Out is a proof of concept. A demonstration that with the right partners, the right strategy, and the right communications architecture, a Central African film can move across borders — not one territory at a time, but seven simultaneously.

That is infrastructure. That is exactly what African cinema needs more of.

The Premiere Tour

The international premiere tour is structured as a continental journey:

Cameroon — April 18, 2026 The world premiere. Home soil. The film opens in the country that made it, in front of the audiences who will feel it most deeply.

Côte d'Ivoire — April 25, 2026 The Francophone West African premiere. Abidjan is one of the most important cultural capitals on the continent — a strategic and symbolic choice.

Ohio, USA — May 2, 2026 The diaspora premiere. African communities in the United States are among the most engaged film audiences in the world — and among the most underserved by traditional distribution. The Ohio premiere speaks directly to them.

The tour continues through the full seven-nation release, building momentum market by market, audience by audience.

Lights Out had also previously been selected for the Silicon Valley African Film Festival — further cementing its festival credentials ahead of its theatrical run.

The API Role

African Pictures International joined the Lights Out campaign as the strategic and communications partner responsible for the full arc of the international rollout. This includes communications architecture across all seven markets, go-to-market strategy for each premiere, press and media relations through May 2026, and the narrative positioning that ensures Lights Out is understood not just as a film but as a milestone.

That last point matters. Films can be good and still be invisible. The story around a film — how it is framed, what it is positioned to mean, who hears about it and through what channels — determines whether it reaches the audience it deserves. API's role is to ensure Lights Out reaches every audience it has earned.

The Filmmaker Behind It

Enah Johnscott is one of Central Africa's most significant working directors — a filmmaker whose career has been defined by a refusal to make small or safe films. Lights Out is a continuation of that refusal. A psychological drama that takes its genre seriously, demands something from its audience, and delivers the kind of emotional specificity that translates across languages and borders.

The cast around him — Wale Ojo, Shaffy Bello, Syndy Emade — are among the most respected screen presences in African cinema. Their attachment to this project is itself a statement. Serious actors choose serious films.

The Bigger Picture

What Lights Out demonstrates — and what this distribution deal makes explicit — is that the infrastructure for African cinema is buildable. It does not have to be assembled from scratch for every film, by every filmmaker, alone. It can be systematic. It can be strategic. It can scale.

That is the conviction at the heart of everything African Pictures International builds. Not content for its own sake. Not individual wins that disappear after opening weekend. Systems. Relationships. Pipelines that the next filmmaker can also use.

Lights Out is the first Cameroonian film to achieve a seven-nation theatrical release. It will not be the last.

The infrastructure is being built. This is what it looks like when it works.

LIGHTS OUT — KEY DETAILS

Director: Enah Johnscott Producer: Carista Asonganyi, Check Sense Productions Stars: Wale Ojo · Shaffy Bello · Syndy Emade Distribution Partner: Majestic Cinemas Strategic Communications: African Pictures International

Premiere Tour: Cameroon — April 18, 2026 Côte d'Ivoire — April 25, 2026 Ohio, USA — May 2, 2026

Theatrical Markets: Cameroon · Côte d'Ivoire · Burkina Faso · Congo · Senegal · Chad · Madagascar

African Pictures International is a global creative infrastructure company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with operations in Lagos and Yaoundé. API operates across film and TV production, media, distribution, SaaS platforms, and strategic consultancy — building the infrastructure that makes African storytelling inevitable.