Nigerian filmmaker Damilola Orimogunje’s second feature, Dear Ajayi, will have its world premiere in competition at the 23rd Giornate degli Autori (Venice Days), the independent parallel section of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival.
The selection makes Dear Ajayi the first Nigerian production to enter the Giornate degli Autori competition. The film will be eligible for the GdA Director’s Award and the People’s Choice Award, as well as the Europa Cinemas Label if its Nigeria-Germany co-production status qualifies it under the section’s European production criteria. Official first-look images from the film have also been released ahead of its Venice premiere.
Set in southwestern Nigeria during the 1990s, Dear Ajayi centres on estranged sisters Ade and Titi Ajayi, whose contrasting lives are brought together when they are forced to care for their paralysed mother. Their reunion reopens unresolved tensions as the sisters confront grief, faith, ambition, love and their relationship with each other.
The film features dialogue in English, Yoruba, French and Igbo, also written by Orimogunje, continuing his focus on family, memory and faith following his debut feature, For Maria Ebun Pataki. Re Olunuga composed the original score.
Bimbo Akintola (To Kill a Monkey) and Tosin Adeyemi (House of Gaa) lead the cast alongside Lanre Hassan and William Benson (The Fire and The Moth). The film also introduces Jamiu Tijani and Matilda Jesuye Obadipe.
The ensemble includes Antar Laniyan, Uzoamaka Power, Michelle Dede, Chioma ‘Chigul’ Omeruah, Kalu Ikeagwu, Tope Tedela, Baaj Adebule, Idowu Philips, Demi Banwo, Jide Oyegbile and Seun Kentebe.
Orimogunje produced Dear Ajayi with Ajah Enene-Orimogunje and Bose Oshin. Zorana Mušikić, May Odeh and Joshua Alabi serve as co-producers.
Representing Nigeria and Germany, the film is a 2o9ine Films production made in co-production with Mayana Films, Depth & Optics Productions and Zynox Productions.
The selection continues a recent run of Nigerian representation at Venice. Joel Kachi Benson’s Daughters of Chibok screened in the festival’s Virtual Reality section in 2019 and won the award for Best Immersive Story, while Olubunmi Ogunsola’s Saint Simeon competed in Orizzonti Shorts in 2025. The same edition also featured Vincho Nchogu’s Kenya-Nigeria co-production One Woman One Bra through Biennale College Cinema. The Giornate degli Autori section has previously presented films with Nigerian connections, including the Nigeria-set short Granma and Sudabeh Mortezai’s Joy, an Austrian production centred on Nigerian migrant women.
During its development and production, Dear Ajayi received support from the Hubert Bals Fund+ Europe. The project also participated in the World Cinema Fund’s WCF-ACP Audience Strategy programme, Ouaga Film Lab, Sud Écriture and the Nouveau Marché at Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma.
Orimogunje founded the Lagos-based 2o9ine Films, whose previous productions include For Maria Ebun Pataki, winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at Film Africa in London, and Babatunde Apalowo’s All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White, which premiered in the Panorama section of the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival and won the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film.
This year’s Giornate degli Autori lineup was selected from 1,036 submissions representing 114 countries. The programme comprises 10 competition titles, one out-of-competition closing film and five special events. The competition jury is entirely female and includes Spanish filmmaker Carla Simón, Italian director and editor Sara Fgaier, and Beirut-based film programmer and distributor Hania Mroué.
The 83rd Venice International Film Festival is scheduled to run from September 2–12, 2026.
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