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The selection of My Father’s Shadow at Cannes 2025 is more than an isolated success. It has been a gradual buildup of a wave in how Nigerian stories are told, where they are told, and who gets to tell them.
In 2013, Tambay Obenson of Akoroko observed that Kunle Afolayan was “one of a handful of internationally-known Nollywood filmmakers” championing a new brand of Nigerian cinema—one that could hold its own on the global stage. He noted the emergence of a movement marked by cross-continental collaborations and a deliberate shift toward cinematic sophistication.
Over a decade later, that vision has not only matured, but it now requires sustenance across the board. A crucial need to support what began as a lone push and has evolved into a wave of Nigerian films that have travelled and triumphed across the world’s most prestigious festivals.
From The Figurine (Araromire), which screened at the IFFR, to My Father’s Shadow, a historic Un Certain Regard selection at Cannes, there is a timeline of quiet ambition, shifting industry structures. These films have looked inward while making attempts at universal storytelling.
This retrospective traces three defining phases in that evolution, from Araromire to My Father’s Shadow. While this piece focuses on the 21st-century trajectory, it’s important to acknowledge that today’s international recognition is rooted in the groundwork laid long before.
Phase 1: Setting the Stage (2009–2015)
Before The Figurine, there was Newton Aduaka, a Nigerian filmmaker working largely outside Nollywood. His 2007 film Ezra, a post-war drama about a former Sierra Leonean child soldier, was selected for Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival. Though the film was not set in Nigeria, its writer-director was, a moment that remains largely unacknowledged in Nigerian discourse, overshadowed by the mainstream business of home video Nollywood and the subsequent wave.
But for what we have today to work, new faith in the cinema space, the industry needed The Figurine. The Kunle Afolayan-directed supernatural thriller rooted in mythology stood out for its themes and cinematic ambition as it reorientated expectations. It screened internationally at festivals such as the International Film Festival Rotterdam (as part of the Where is Africa? programme), the New York African Film Festival, and even as far as Japan, directly influencing the stylistic and industrial shift in Nollywood, most notably reopening the cinema doors for the industry.
Around the same time, Chineze Anyaene’s Ije (2010) brought a diaspora narrative to the fore, following two sisters entangled in a U.S. legal system after a tragic accusation. Starring Genevieve Nnaji and Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Ije toured U.S. cinemas and won awards at festivals like the Las Vegas International Film Festival and the San Francisco Black Film Festival. Anyaene, with no further directorial work, would go on to be the inaugural head of the country’s Oscars selection committee until her exit in 2023.
Alongside Ije and The Figurine was a quieter, socially attuned film that gained traction abroad. B for Boy (2013), directed by Chika Anadu, is a feminist drama about a woman pressured to produce a male heir. The film premiered at the BFI London Film Festival, earned a Breakthrough Award at AFI Fest, and screened at the Durban International Film Festival. Anadu, who most recently co-wrote I Do Not Come To You By Chance, hasn’t directed a major project since B for Boy. This absence of a follow-up for Anadu will become visible amongst more filmmakers in subsequent years, a common struggle after bursting into the international scene.
Then we had Kenneth Gyang’s Confusion Na Wa (2013), a darkly comic, multi-threaded narrative about urban chaos and moral decay, which won Best Film at the Africa Movie Academy Awards and screened at the New York African Film Festival and Cascade Festival of African Films. Gyang, while biding his time for the right creative partnership, spent time at international labs and workshops shortly after. Now more known for his work at EbonyLife (Blood Sisters, Oloture), he became a key figure in the low-budget festival-eyeing movement and has been credited by other younger filmmakers for his early crusade with Confusion Na Wa.
Together, these key films laid the 21st-century groundwork for lone filmmakers embracing prestige and experimentation in their distribution path, themes, style and budget.
Phase 2: The Streaming Pivot (2016–2020)
The arrival of global streaming platforms was a key event at this midphase. In 2018, Lionheart, Genevieve Nnaji’s debut, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival before becoming Netflix’s first Nigerian original. This marked a noticeable distribution shift, which placed a lot of expectations on the foreign streamers. For filmmakers, I could see Lionheart offering a quiet hope: a festival-premiered film that was culturally grounded, countering dominant tropes of spectacle, heading straight to Netflix.
But the groundwork for that TIFF appearance had been laid earlier. In 2016, the Toronto International Film Festival launched its City to City spotlight on Lagos. Eight films were selected, including The Wedding Party, Okafor’s Law, Green White Green, The Arbitration, Oko Ashewo (Taxi Driver), 93 Days, 76, and Just Not Married. While some stakeholders questioned the artistic daring of these selections, the gesture itself marked a moment of institutional validation for many others.
By 2019, Nigeria’s global film identity was being pushed further by technological experiments. Joel Kachi Benson’s Daughters of Chibok, a VR documentary centring the voices of women whose daughters were abducted by Boko Haram, premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won Best VR Story, making Benson the first African recipient of the award. The project combined activism with innovation, bringing a deeply Nigerian trauma into the heart of global digital storytelling. Benson has since followed up with Noah’s Raft (a VR short story set in Africa’s largest water slum) and Madu (2024), a Disney+ documentary about the titular Nigerian viral ballet sensation.
In 2020 came Eyimofe (This Is My Desire), a Lagos-set portrait of systemic failures and migration aspiration. The debut feature by brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri was fully funded within Nigeria and shot on 16mm film, setting it apart both in intention and aesthetic. Premiering at the prestigious Berlinale, it was embraced for its textured realism and nuance as the migration wave was brewing. Making more history, Eyimofe later landed on the Criterion Collection and became available on platforms like Prime Video and HBO Max in various territories. The Esiris are yet to announce a follow-up, but their first film was one of the first Nigerian films to travel as widely as it did.
This phase, spanning 2016 to 2020, represents a dual breakthrough. On one hand, streamers like Netflix promised the gates to global visibility; on the other, Nigerian filmmakers were being welcomed into the most selective corners of the festival circuit—not as guests at the side events, but as auteurs in the major sections of the festivals.
Phase 3: The Festival Charge (2021–2025)
Beginning in 2021, we entered a phase of increased visibility at festivals, with back-to-back selections in major competitive sections. What followed was more global debuts, critical acclaim, and creative evolution.
This phase was ignited by two breakthrough short films: Lizard by Akinola Davies Jr. and Rehearsal by Michael Omonua. Lizard, a British-backed short set in a Lagos church, won the Grand Jury Prize for Short Film at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, using a child’s gaze to explore religious hypocrisy. It marked a strong festival debut for Davies, who would later go on to direct My Father’s Shadow, the first Nigerian film selected for Un Certain Regard at Cannes.
Meanwhile, Omonua’s Rehearsal, a minimalist meditation on performance and credibility within Nigerian churches, premiered in competition at Berlinale Shorts 2021. The film went on to win the Grand Prize for Best International Short Film at Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur—a win that qualified it for Oscar consideration. With its sharp critique of how faith and theatre often blur in modern religious spaces, Rehearsal teased the thematic ambitions of Nigeria’s new generation of filmmakers.
Later that year, Juju Stories—an anthology film from the Surreal16 collective (C.J. Obasi, Abba T. Makama, and Michael Omonua)—premiered in competition at the Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Boccalino d’Oro award for Best Film from independent critics. Exploring urban legends, the three-part narrative offered a reflection of Nigerian folklore. After a brief theatrical run in Nigeria, it later streamed on Prime Video in select regions. Since then, Abba directed The Kids Are OK (the alte scene documentary), and is working on a documentary about Yoruba music while Omonua has sights on Galatians, an expansion of his work in Rehearsal. As a group behind the auteur-driven S16 Film Festival, which was founded in 2021, they envision bridging the gap between Nigerian filmmakers and the global stage.
In 2023, C.J. Obasi of the Surreal 16 returned with Mami Wata, a monochromatic tale rooted in West African mythology that participated in several key development and post-production labs, which collectively shaped its path to international success. Premiering at Sundance 2023, the film earned the Special Jury Prize for Cinematography, becoming the first Nigerian feature to both premiere and win at the festival. Its feminist themes and striking aesthetic added an extra layer to Obasi’s global reputation as he landed a NAACP nomination. He is currently developing La Pyramide, a transcontinental co-production between Nigeria, Senegal, the U.S., the UK, and Brazil.
Still reveling in the early year Sundance 2023 achievement, All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White followed in February. Directed by Babatunde Apalowo, it premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award for Best LGBTQ+ Film. A contemplative story about queer longing in Lagos, the film has since faced distribution challenges after an extended run on the festival circuit but is currently streaming on HBO Max in parts of Europe. Apalowo is currently working on In the Shadows of Good Fortune, which was at a post-production lab in Marrakech.
Also in 2023, TIFF’s official selection included Ishaya Bako’s I Do Not Come To You By Chance, an adaptation of Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s novel about email scamming and economic survival. Despite the buzz, the film has yet to secure wide distribution. It is worth noting that diaspora filmmaker Lonzo Nzekwe’s multicountry Orah also premiered at that edition.
Nigerian short films by a wave of younger filmmakers (curated by Michael Omonua) also gained major ground: Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2023 made Nigeria a country of focus, showcasing 17 short films and affirming the gradually rising variety in alternative themes, formats and filmmakers.
In 2024, The Weekend, a psychological relationship thriller directed by Daniel Oriahi, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Produced by Trino Pictures in a risk-filled undertaking (as admitted by Trino co-founder Uche Okocha), the film brought a thrilling Nigerian energy to the familiar Meet-The-Parents trope and has streamed on Nigerian-founded streaming platform Circuits. Oriahi, who previously directed Sylvia and has contributed to the upcoming second season of Blood Sisters, looks to continue to bridge indie style with commercial reach.
That same year, TIFF featured Agbajowo Collective’s The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos, a genre-blending portrait of a fictionalised anti-heroine (played by Temi Ami Williams) based on the riverine displacements across the country that the debut filmmakers themselves had experienced, and Afolabi Olalekan’s Freedom Way, another debut film that examines the systemic corruption and police impunity which has gained traction on the festival circuit and recently won Best Movie and Best Writing at the AMVCA. Both projects reflect films unafraid to raise critical questions about evergreen issues plaguing Nigeria.
The multi-year streak reached a new peak in 2025 with My Father’s Shadow premiering in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, the first Nigerian film to enter the official selection. A film working with a son’s reconstructed memory of their father set around the 1993 Nigerian elections, it marks a new high in Nigerian narratives on the global stage. Director Akinola Davies Jr., building on his short-form success, collaborated with international funders across Europe and Nigeria to bring the film to life. At the festival, he received a Camera d’Or Special Mention for My Father’s Shadow, which was already acquired by Mubi pre-festival.
Across these years, these Nigerian films have explored themes with distinct stylistic signatures unique to each filmmaker, coupled with a universality that resonates across festival screening halls, yet remaining deeply grounded in local realities. If earlier phases were about building universal recognition, this one and the next are about sustenance.
Engagement at Home
As these films travel wider and become festival regulars, a pressing question remains: can Nigerian systems—distribution, funding, press, and policy—catch up to support these auteur voices?
There are early signs of promise. The Screen Nigeria initiative, launched at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, is one such step. Promising to attract international co-productions and increase infrastructural investment, the initiative is backed by government partnerships like the newly announced collaboration with Chocolate City to revamp the long-neglected National Film Institute. These gestures signal a growing awareness that global acclaim is only meaningful if there is a strong domestic base to sustain it. Still, the gap between intention and implementation remains wide.
Take Mami Wata, for instance, Nigeria’s submission to the 2023 Oscars. Despite its success at Sundance and global buzz, it received no substantial support from the Nigerian government during its awards campaign, missing an opportunity to elevate not just the film but the country’s creative capital. That kind of backing—financial, logistical, and promotional—is exactly what Screen Nigeria claims it now intends to provide. If sustained, it could shift how far and how fast Nigerian films can travel on the awards circuit and the place of the films when they return home.
Yet, infrastructure alone isn’t the whole story. When these films return home, many meet a heartaching reception. Eyimofe premiered months after its Berlinale debut and struggled for visibility against crowd-pleasing comedies and star-led dramas. Juju Stories, Mami Wata, and The Weekend had similarly brief theatrical runs—averaging two to three weeks—and were largely underpromoted. Others, like All The Colours of the World Are Between Black and White, arrived quietly on streaming platforms in Europe without much noise in Nigeria. The pattern is clear: festival success doesn’t automatically translate to local engagement yet.
There is a deeper tension at play: a disconnect between the global “art house” style and the conditioned Nollywood audience’s appetite for fast-paced, high-stakes entertainment. The structural bias is compounded by poor media and marketing strategy, and an overreliance on the festival buzz to sell a film. These filmmakers, for all their brilliance and their niche audience, must also do more to position their works in Nigeria’s dysfunctional system, from clearer rollouts to sustained audience interaction. As it stands, many of these films appear on festival selection lists with little more than a still or a teaser, leaving local audiences in prolonged limbo, unsure when or how they’ll ever see them.
And yet, the occasional delay creates its own strange magic: a pleasant curiosity. As each new Nigerian title appears in Berlin, Locarno, Sundance, or Cannes, there’s a collective anticipation about what layer of the Nigerian experience will be peeled back next. Will it be silence and memory? Myth and urbanism? Queerness and repression? Technology and tradition? With every outing, the canvas of Nigerian cinema expands.
If you made it this far, you can find some of the mentioned titles on our Letterboxd list.
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