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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Venice’s Giornate degli Autori is a film programme run alongside the main Venice Film Festival, with its own competition. Nigeria has a growing film industry, often called Nollywood, and a selection in an international festival can bring wider attention to its filmmakers.
Damilola Orimogunje is a Nigerian writer, director and producer. His first feature, For Maria Ebun Pataki, won an audience award at Film Africa in London, and he later produced a film that won the Teddy Award at Berlin.
His family drama is set in south-western Nigeria in the 1990s and centres on sisters Ade and Titi, whose outlooks and ambitions differ as they care for their ill mother. Its story places family relationships at the centre, while the festival selection adds to international interest in Nigerian films.
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