Damilola Orimogunje’s “Dear Ajayi” Selected for Venice, Acquired for Sales by Italian Agency, Luminalia

Damilola Orimogunje, of For Maria, Ebun Pataki‘s fame, sophomore feature film, Dear Ajayi, has been selected for its world premiere at the 23rd edition of Giornate degli Autori (Directors/Authors’ Days), the independent sidebar of the Venice Film Festival. 

The Giornate degli Autori, founded in 2004, is promoted by the associations of Italian film directors and authors ANAC and 100autori as an autonomous event within the Venice Film Festival, modeled on the prestigious  Directors’ Fortnight  in Cannes. The festival goal is to raise awareness for quality cinema, without restrictions of any kind, with a focus on innovation, research, expressive originality, and independent production. The festival is scheduled for 2nd to 12th September, 2026.

Dear Ajayi shot in Ibadan was selected as one of the three recipients of the HBF+Europe Post-production Support. The Nigerian-German co-production is produced by Nigeria’s 2o9ine Films with Depth and Optics Productions, and Germany’s Mayana Films. The producers are Orimogunje, Bose Oshin, Ajah Enene-Orimogunje, Zorana Mušikić, and May Odeh. Financiers include the World Cinema Fund, Ouaga Film Lab, Nouveau Marché–Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Montréal, and Hubert Bals Fund+Europe. 

Bimbo Akintola and Tosin Adeyemi star in the film set in 1990s Nigeria, as two estranged sisters forced to live under the same roof while caring for their paralysed mother. One sister is a dutiful and devout Christian. The other is an aspiring singer with a defiant and independent spirit. 

Out of the 25 films selected for world premieres at the 2026 Giornate degli Autori, ten titles, including Dear Ajayi, will compete in the official competition, which will open with My Notes On Mars, the first English-language film from Hungarian director Horvat. 

The official awards of the Giornate degli Autori include the GdA Director’s Award, assigned by the Giornate degli Autori Official Jury. The Award consists of a €20,000 cash prize, split equally between the director and their international sales representative, who uses the proceeds to promote the film. The Audience Award for films from the Official Selection is eligible. Lastly is the  Europa Cinemas Label, dedicated to European productions and co-productions. The Label, created by a network of high-quality European exhibitors (over 3,123 screens in 43 countries), with the support of the EU MEDIA Programme, provides a financial contribution towards distribution and promotion, as well as the permanence of the winning film in the network’s member theaters.

A three-person jury including, Lebanese programmer and distributor Hania Mroue and Italian filmmaker Sara Fgaier, and presided by Spanish filmmaker Carla Simon, will present awards including the GdA Director’s Award, with a €20,000 ($22,821) cash prize split between the director and distributor of the winning film.

Luminalia, an Italian independent sales agency specializing in festival strategy and creative distribution, has acquired the sales rights for the film. The agency focuses on non-Western productions and curates a catalogue of films from underrepresented regions. Dear Ajayi is the third African film the agency will be acquiring this year, following Ique langa’s Mozambique drama O Profeta and Senegalese director Mamadou Dia’s dance documentary Atcha Atcha.