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Akinola Davies Jr.’s feature directorial debut, My Father’s Shadow, will screen and compete in the Un Certain Regard section at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, taking place from May 13 to 24, 2025. With this film, Davies Jr. becomes the first Nigerian director to bring a Nigerian-set fiction feature into Cannes’ Official Selection.
Previous milestones include Ezra (Critics’ Week 2007), directed by Nigerian filmmaker Newton Aduaka but set in Sierra Leone, and Hope (Critics’ Week 2014), centred on a Nigerian character but directed by French filmmaker Boris Lojkine. Both were part of Critics’ Week, an independent sidebar, rather than the Official Selection.
Davies’ film, starring Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, unfolds in Lagos during Nigeria’s pivotal 1993 presidential election as two young brothers, Remi and Akin, spend a day with their estranged father, Folarin, in the city of Lagos and witnessing their father’s daily struggles amidst escalating political unrest.
Co-written by Akinola Davies Jr. and his brother Wale Davies, the narrative draws inspiration from their personal experiences. The duo previously worked on the short film Lizard, which garnered the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2021 and received a BAFTA nomination.
My Father’s Shadow is a collaboration between Element Pictures, Crybaby, and Fatherland Productions, with development support from BBC Film and the BFI. Producers include Rachel Dargavel and Funmbi Ogunbanwo, with executive producers Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Eva Yates, Ama Ampadu, and Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù.
Nigeria’s presence at the prestigious festival continues to grow slowly, with the Screen Nigeria event set to launch at the 2025 festival. This builds on the success of Onyi Moss, who won the Best Script Award at a TikTok-organised competition during Cannes 2024. Additionally, the development workshop La Fabrique Cinema at Cannes has also spotlighted Nigerian talent, such as Michael Omonua‘s Galatians in 2023.
Other notable selections at this year’s Cannes edition include the opening French film Leave One Day, Eddington (Ari Aster), The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson), Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Christopher McQuarrie), and Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater).
The Un Certain Regard category has previously featured films like Wanuri Kahiu’s Kenyan queer romance drama Rafiki, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth, and recently Rungano Nyoni’s satire On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.
In recent news, MUBI had previously announced the acquisition of the distribution rights for North America, the UK, Ireland, and Turkey, with plans for theatrical releases in key markets.
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