Akinola Davies Jr. Confronts Family Legacy in U.K. Oscar Hopeful ‘My Father’s Shadow’

British-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr.‘s feature directorial debut, the semi-autobiographical Lagos-set coming-of-age tale My Father’s Shadow — a semi-autobiographical, Lagos-set coming-of-age tale — has had a remarkable year.

After premiering in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, where it received a special mention for the Camera d’Or, the film became the U.K.’s official submission for the best international feature film Oscar. Davies then closed November with a best director honor at the British Independent Film Awards and opened December by taking home two Gotham Film Awards, for best breakthrough director and best lead performance.

And just last week, Davies was among the 20-strong 2025 BAFTA Breakthrough Brits list of up-and-coming U.K. industry talent, supported by Netflix.

My Father’s Shadow unfolds over the course of a single day in the Nigerian capital during the 1993 election crisis. The movie follows a father, portrayed by Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù (Gangs of London, Slow Horses), who, along with his two young sons, travels through the huge city while political unrest threatens their journey home. The siblings are played by real-life brothers, Godwin and Chibuike Marvellous Egbo, who are not professional actors.

Directed by Davies based on a script he co-wrote with his brother Wale, the film’s cinematography is courtesy of Jermaine Edwards, with editing by Omar Guzmán Castro.

Watch a trailer for My Father’s Shadow here.

Davies talked to THR about blending fact and fiction, crafting complex characters, representing Africa accurately and his collaborative creative process with his brother and crew.

How much of My Father’s Shadow is based on real-life experience and how much on fiction, or imagination?

I would define it as a semi-autobiographical supernatural drama. I think I borrowed that from Mati Diop when she spoke about Atlantique (Atlantics). I’ve described it as a sort of weird family heirloom of a film, and I’m just really proud of it. There’s so much of our real family stories and life in there, but there is also a lot that encases that in fiction. It’s really hard to separate what’s real and what’s not.

My brother is so skilled that what he put in there [included] some stories I thought I’d never even heard before, such as the story about … how my uncle drowned, and my brother got his name. I didn’t even realize until really far into the editing process that something about this story sounded familiar. And then my brother was like, “Yes, that’s what [happened].” I remember being told that story when I was young, but it just never really registered, because it was an uncle I never really met, but my brother managed to put it in there and honor the legacy of our father and people who passed.

I loved that certain things in the film remain unspoken and open, keeping the father and his family relationships somewhat ambiguous. Did you know from the beginning that you didn’t want to make My Father’s Shadow a film about a clear-cut and heroic person?

Yes and no. I personally, yes. But my brother definitely went on a journey. My brother idolizes the idea of our father, whereas I’ve always come from a slightly more angry side with a lot more questioning. Our father passed when I was a baby, and my brother was three. He had health complications, so it’s not something he could have helped. But as a child and growing into masculinity, not having a father figure just made me angry in many instances.

So, when we were writing the film together, it was definitely more of a rose-tinted character to begin with. And when we started to evaluate what we were really trying to do in terms of the story to tell and having a certain level of honesty, we realized it would maybe end up being somewhat cathartic for us. We [realized] we’d maybe work some things out that we hadn’t really realized we needed to work out.

Equally, to create a character that’s flawed holds that character accountable to us, to the women in our lives, the people in our lives. And this is probably a more honest reflection of what it is to be a man who’s charming, who’s well-loved, who everyone really likes, but who is also completely imperfect. He is trying to make decisions as best as possible, but in some instances, those decisions aren’t perfect; they’re full of mistakes, and that’s what makes the character well-rounded.

I saw Africa in My Father’s Shadow depicted in ways I don’t often see. How important is it for you to show the world a side of Africa that is more accurate?

Completely. We knew that was important quite early on, because a lot of the depictions of Africa, as you say, lean into all these stereotypical projections from the outside of what it means to be African. We were born in the U.K., but grew up in Nigeria. So, we wanted to document something that felt close to our existence in Africa. We knew the Nigeria and the Lagos we grew up in. Obviously, there are also extremes, but in the day-to-day, people just get on with their lives; they have the same cultural references as people in Europe and America, be it wrestling or music or culture or TV or clothing. Ultimately, there are people thriving, there are people falling in love, there are people who are dealing with hard times.

I think on a fundamental level, people are just ambitious and optimistic, and they want the best for their children and their country. We really wanted to depict where we grew up. We wanted it, if nothing else, to be a Nigeria we recognize. I’m really proud that I, my brother, and [cinematographer] Jermaine Edwards, in his debut feature film as well, really sort of captured that.

I noticed some clues in the visual and other details that you feature in My Father’s Shadow, including a watch. Can you talk a bit about the importance of details for your storytelling?

It’s super important. I think specificity is what makes a story unique. But it’s also something that people who are interested in those things can share in. That goes, for example, for music, and the same goes for a lot of the tapestry of the things that trigger memory, which is a main component of our film. We wanted to lean into aspects of nostalgia and aspects that allow us to place you in 1993, because at the end of the day, it’s also a period film.

So how do you lean into memory? You have to reference things that are of the time. If in our writing we mentioned something that was not of that time, we quickly had to do a search to remember, “Oh no, this was a bit afterwards.” All that specificity and doubling down on the things that you geek out on and you love makes a specific story and just makes it feel a lot more real and loved and cherished.

How did you cast the two young brothers?

This was their first film. Their mother is a professional actor and script writer. They had a good ability to remember dialogue. But I didn’t even know they were brothers the first day I met them, because they were labeled wrong. I just saw them being really tactile with each other and really supportive. And then on the next day, we realized they were brothers, and that got us and the producers really excited that they had that chemistry between brothers.

And how did you get Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù to bring his charisma and layered approach to the role of the father?

It was really fortuitous. We had a short list of people, some from America, some from the U.K., some local Nigerian. I had seen Ṣọpẹ on stage [as Muhammad Ali] in One Night in Miami, so I knew intuitively that in terms of the performance and in terms of vulnerability, he could do the job. And then he was in Gangs of London, which re-triggered that memory. I was like, “Oh, what about this guy?” I wasn’t really intimidated by the fact that he’d not done features before back then. Everyone thought he was really perfect for it. And then we met in person. And quickly, besides knowing how talented an actor he is, I knew he was also an incredible, incredible human being, and someone I could learn a lot from and wanted to spend a lot of time with.

While playing the role, he also took on a mentor role for the boys, which was excellent. He also came on as an exec producer, so he was really committed to the project. We did one read together, and we just knew we had the right person. He was a perfect fit and a real blessing to the project.

Do you know what you’re going to do next?

My brother and I have five or six projects that we’d like to try to navigate. Of course, some of them might not happen. We know we want to work with each other. We know we want to shoot in Nigeria. Ultimately, it really depends on the right idea and timing, and sense of urgency. Yeah, I’m excited to get back in the lab with my brother and come back with something just as fun and hopefully with just as great performances.

Anything else you’d like to share?

As the director, I always get to do the interviews. We get the acclaim, we get the nominations. But I think I’m really just a reflection of my crew. I really want to highlight the fact that for so many of us My Father’s Shadow is our debut. It’s just so many firsts. And there are all these incredible people who worked on the film. I just really think the film is a testament to the fact that they’re all incredibly brilliant. And I’m so grateful for that experience being shaped with all our enthusiasm. So yeah, I would just want to reflect as much positivity back on my crew as possible.