Kenyan-Nigerian co-production One Woman One Bra has clinched the 2025 Sutherland Award for Best First Feature at the BFI London Film Festival, which concluded on 19 October.
The Jury members of Kibwe Tavares, Anja Fröhner and Nadia Latif remarked in a statement: “We are delighted to award the Sutherland Prize to Vincho Nchogu for her brilliant debut film, One Woman, One Bra. We were incredibly impressed by her ability to confidently move between so many tones, but always holding the audience with care. Her film uses humour to shattering effect. Vincho also elicited fantastic performances from her entire cast, complemented by stunning cinematography throughout.The piece is at once funny, life-affirming, and deeply moving; its emotional journey stayed with us and will continue to do so.”
In our review, we described the film as “both an intimate character study and a blistering systemic indictment, anchored by Sarah Karei’s performance of quiet ferocity.”
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Written and directed by Kenyan filmmaker Vincho Nchogu and produced by Nigerian Josh Olaoluwa for Kilastory and Conceptified Media, the film was amongst a slate of Nigerian-linked debuts, including Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s Dreamers and Akinola Davies Jr’s My Father’s Shadow.
Told in Maa, Swahili, and English, and shot in Kenya, One Woman One Bra was developed through the Venice Biennale College Cinema programme, which tasks finalists with making a feature film within a year of selection. The project went on to have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival before making its UK premiere at BFI London.
The Sutherland Award is the BFI London Film Festival’s top honour for first-time filmmakers. Over the years, previous awardees include Robert Eggers for The Witch (2015) and Mati Diop for Atlantics (2019).
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Update (20/10/2025): jury statement was updated in the story, as provided in a press release. Alos, a previous version wrongly stated the award as the 2026 edition.
