Orobosa Ikponmwen’s “Adanne” gets AAIFF and Women of the Lens Festival London Selection

Orobosa Ikponmwen‘s directorial feature-length debut, Adanne, has been selected for the All African Independent Film Festival (AAIFF) in Kigali, Rwanda, and the Women of the Lens Festival in London. AAIFF is scheduled for 15th to 17th October, 2026, while the Women of the Lens Festival will take place in November 2026. 

Adanne tells the story of three generations of Igbo women navigating love, duty, and family tension, centered on a young woman caught between her creative ambitions and the traditions she’s expected to uphold. Performed in English and Igbo, the film is written and produced by Gold Gerry, produced by Lotanna Nwose, and directed by Ikponmwen. Mmesomachi Chilaka plays the eponymous character,  alongside Onyinye Odokoro as Ijeoma, Kelvinmary Ndukwe as Daniel, and Jennifer Umenwa as Akachi. The film was shot in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Adanne is a teenage girl struggling to shape her own identity in a world that demands she place duty before self. Caught between desire and expectation, she questions whether the life laid out for her is one she must accept. The film examines how patterns of behaviour, belief, and survival pass through generations of women, and looks closely at the quiet negotiations, sacrifices, and tenderness shaping mother-daughter relationships.

According to the director, our society thrives on silence, and silence is what generational cycles need to survive. From one girl to the next, that pattern is inherited without consent and vigorous pushback. In Adanne, Akachi begins the cycle, Ijeoma sustains it, and Adanne stands at the point where it might finally break. The film, the director shares, mirrors the quotidian experiences of everyday Nigerian and African women. In this way, the film becomes an act of listening to mothers and daughters, to the quiet moments where love and resentment coexist. “Adanne is an attempt to break silence without spectacle. It is about the small, intimate violences we normalise in families, and the tenderness that survives in spite of them. The film lives in looks held too long, words swallowed, and truths delayed. My hope is that it invites audiences to see themselves and perhaps begin conversations they have long avoided,” Ikponmwen concludes. 

Adanne is the first feature film by Melon House Production, created from a personal need to tell the story of three generations of Igbo women and how history repeats itself within families. The film was shot in Ibadan and is currently on its film festival circuit journey. The production just signed a distribution deal with Trino Motion Pictures for a global non-theatrical release. 

According to the producers, these selections mark an early stop in Adanne‘s international festival run, with further screenings planned across the EMEA region as the film moves toward theatrical release with Trino.