Diaspora Star | Akinola Davies Jr. : The British-Nigerian Visionary Reimagining Arthouse Nollywood for the World

Akinola Davies Jr. represents a rare kind of creative evolution, one shaped by late beginnings, relentless discipline, and an uncompromising belief in the power of Nigerian storytelling. His rise wasn’t accidental; it was built on grit. Before the accolades and festival selections, he was working in UK bars, call centres, and retail shops, piecing together a living while quietly nursing an interest in the arts. At 26 an age many consider too late to start, he began assisting photographers and filmmakers, determined to catch up fast.

And he did. He became the assistant everyone wanted because he understood he didn’t have time to waste.

The turning point came when a mentor bluntly told him to stop putting other people’s work on his blog. It stung. But it forced him to make his own. His first self-directed project led to another, and eventually built the confidence that pushed him from “assistant” to “storyteller.” By the mid-2010s, he’d transformed that discipline into a recognizable voice, one defined by psychological depth, cultural memory, and a refusal to imitate Western expectations.

Everything changed with Lizard. Shot just before the pandemic and inspired by his Nigerian childhood, the short film exploded internationally. Sundance awarded it the Grand Jury Prize. BAFTA nominated it. Major festivals embraced it. That early success wasn’t luck; it was the arrival of a filmmaker who finally stepped into his lane, fully aware of what he wanted to say and who he wanted to say it for.

His feature debut, My Father’s Shadow, written by his brother Wale Davies of Show Dem Camp, cemented his place in global cinema. Selected for the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival, the first Nigerian film ever chosen, it signals a major shift in how Nigerian stories are entering global spaces. The film, set against the backdrop of the 1993 elections, follows two boys spending a single day with their estranged father. It’s layered, intimate, and steeped in the realities of Nigerian manhood, grief, memory, and broken promises. With Sope Dirisu leading the cast and a largely Nigerian crew behind the lens, Davies leaves no room for debate: this is a Nigerian film through and through.

His approach to filmmaking is unapologetic. He prioritizes authenticity over spectacle, complexity over convenience. He understands the weight of telling stories about home, the emotional labour, the cultural nuance, the responsibility to portray Nigeria truthfully without performance for outsiders. His philosophy is simple: write boldly, write well, and respect the craft. Good writing sits at the centre of his work, and he insists that Nigerian films can travel globally if they’re built on strong narrative foundations.

Davies embraces the “arthouse Nollywood” label unapologetically. For him, Nollywood isn’t a constraint; it’s the reason he believed filmmaking was possible in the first place. He works with Nollywood crew, shoots in Lagos and Ibadan, and weaves English, Pidgin, and Yoruba into his dialogue without diluting authenticity. His mission is to elevate, not replace; to innovate, not discard. And he never romanticizes the difficulty, Nigeria’s chaos is its energy, and he uses it to shape fearless cinema.

For the diaspora, Davies is a reminder that Nigerian storytelling is evolving beyond genre clichés. He is proof that global acclaim doesn’t require abandoning cultural truth. He is shaping a new lane, one that merges festival-worthy arthouse sensibilities with the emotional rawness of Nollywood. His work demonstrates that local stories, when told with care and craft, have universal power.

Akinola Davies Jr. isn’t just directing films, he’s building a cinematic blueprint for the next generation of Nigerian and diaspora storytellers.