Nigeria Has Its First Venice Giornate Entry With Damilola Orimogunje’s Family Portrait ‘Dear Ajayi’ — First-Look Trailer
Nigerian filmmaker Damilola Orimogunje will premiere his second feature, Dear Ajayi, next week at the Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori section. It is the first Nigerian film selected for the parallel section’s competition, marking a notable milestone for Nigerian cinema and for Orimogunje’s international profile.
Set in south-western Nigeria in the 1990s, the film follows sisters Ade and Titi Ajayi as their differing beliefs and ambitions collide after their ill mother moves in. Orimogunje wrote and directed the family drama; it is produced by 2O9INE Films with several co-producers, while Luminalia is handling worldwide sales. His debut, For Maria Ebun Pataki, won Film Africa London’s audience award, and he also produced Berlin Teddy Award winner All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White.
- Dear Ajayi becomes Nigeria’s first Giornate degli Autori competition entry.
- The drama explores sisterhood, grief, faith and ambition.
- Damilola Orimogunje wrote and directed the film.
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