Hassen, Mohammed (PhD)Berihu, Ridwan2018-07-022023-11-082018-07-022023-11-082011-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/5484For decades the Ethiopian audiences had no choices except watching Hollywood‘s and Bollywood‘s films in cinema theatres. For decades the foreign product movies were consumed by the audiences in Ethiopia. In recent years, the film industry in Ethiopia has witnessed a major stride in terms of quantity and popularity of locally made films. This study under the title of “Examining the Popularity of Local Films, A Study of Audiences in Addis Ababa” is interested in examining the reception of the local films. The study employed qualitative method of study and participatory observation, focus group discussion, and individual in-depth interviews to gather the data. The findings of the study showed that the local audiences choose the locally made films primarily because of the language and cultural familiarities. The audiences are eager to watch the locally made films and actively participate in negotiating with the messages of the films. Moreover, the audiences are associated the messages of the films with their day to day real life. Audiences are also in favor of the culture and norm of the society, because from their response they don‘t feel comfort watching the nudity, sexual scenes, kissing in the locally made films. Moreover, the movie going culture is evidently becoming very high as a result of cultural familiarity and absence of language barriers among other things. This is consistent with theories of active audiences and audience reception in which audiences give their own interpretations and understandings based on their actively participation with the messages of the filmsenLocal FilmsThesis