About Dr. Samantha Israel Iwowo

Dr. Samantha-Israel Iwowo is a British-Nigerian filmmaker, screenwriter, director, researcher, and Principal Academic at Bournemouth University. Based in the United Kingdom, she works across content creation, story creation and development, character layering, genre specialisation, scriptwriting, film directing, and film production consultancy.

Her practice and scholarship support creative industries and cultural heritage while challenging marginalisation through postcolonial and transnational frameworks. The outputs of this work reflect a sustained fusion of industry practice, scholarship, and education delivery.

Her screen practice includes major recognition across film-festival and industry circuits. Oloibiri won Best Screenplay at the 2015 NAFCA Awards and formed part of the winning production team for Best Film at the 2016 San Diego Black Film Festival.

She also received the Award of Merit in the Best Shorts Competition, Los Angeles, in 2015 for One of Several. R.U.N.S was nominated for the 2016 AMAA Awards for Best Documentary, while Oloibiri was nominated for Best Screenplay at the 2017 AMVCA Awards.

Her formal training spans literary studies, brand strategy, directing practice, doctoral film research, and higher-education pedagogy. She holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Benin, an MSc in Corporate Communications and PR from the University of West London, a Diploma in Film Directing from the London Academy of Media, Film & TV, and a PhD in Film, Television & Cinema from the University of Bristol.

She also completed a PG Certificate in Education Practice at Bournemouth University with Distinction. Her doctoral study, completed with minor corrections, was part-funded by the University of Bristol Faculty of Arts Research Scholarship and remains foundational to her later research and pedagogic work.

At Bournemouth University she has served as Lecturer in Directing Drama for Film & TV, Senior Lecturer in Directing for Film & TV, Programme Leader for the Masters in Directing for Film & TV, and now Principal Academic in Directing for Film & TV. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Department of Media Production DEI Committee and has held external responsibilities including work as External Examiner for the University of York.

Alongside her academic appointments, she has sustained an active independent practice as a filmmaker, screenwriter, and director since April 2010, as well as teaching film production at Southampton Solent University and working previously as a commissioned screenwriter and director for MultiChoice.

Her filmography includes AIDA-Study Screenplay for a Social Psychology Research at the London School of Economics (2016), Babymamas & Guitars (2016), After the "I Dos" (2015), Oloibiri (2015), Till you're 16 (2015), Price of Spice (2015), Wind Chasers (2015), R.U.N.S (2015), Tinsel (writer, 2013-2014), Time Knocks (2014), Just a Maid (2014), and Sparrow's Song, currently in pre-production.

Her specialisation spans content creation, story creation and development, character layering, genre specialisation, scriptwriting, film directing, and production consultancy. As a writer, she cites the principle: "Characters don't talk about theme, they wallow in it" (S. Duncan, 2006).

Iwowo's research lies in postcolonialism with leanings in transnational cinema studies. Her doctoral research at the University of Bristol used Homi Bhabha's concepts of colonial mimicry, sly civility, and orientalism to identify problematic vestiges of the Colonial Film Unit in neo-Nollywood and to examine their consequences for aesthetics, production, distribution, and access to Anglo-American distribution markets.

She is currently working on a Routledge-commissioned monograph on decolonising film directing, has co-authored a chapter in the second edition of The SAGE Handbook of Leadership, and has published on neo-Nollywood mise en scene and creativity in the COVID-19 crisis. Her current research interests span postcolonialism, postcolonial cinema, subalternity, intersectionality, transnational cinema, Nollywood, African cinema, African studies, Indigenous knowledge, decolonisation, and filmmaking practices including screenwriting, directing, and mise en scene.

Her public engagement includes paper presentations at the University of Oxford and the RAD Conference in 2017, visiting lectures at London South Bank University in 2016 and University College London in 2017, and a broad range of seminars, screenings, roundtables, and public scholarship activity across the United Kingdom and internationally.

She has given interviews and appeared in press and broadcast outlets including BBC Radio Solent, ThisDay, The Guardian, Journal of African Cinemas, Tribune, The Africa Institute Sharjah coverage, Independent Newspapers, and a range of academic and cultural platforms. She also notes further interviews through the posts section of her LinkedIn activity.