A Nigerian family story set in the 1990s is now headed for one of the world’s biggest film stages, after Dear Ajayi was chosen as Nigeria’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards.
Directed, written and produced by Damilola Orimogunje, the film takes viewers into southwestern Nigeria, where the complicated relationship between two sisters becomes the centre of a story shaped by family, faith, grief and ambition.
Ade and Titi Ajayi have grown into women whose lives have taken different directions but when their ailing mother comes to live with them, the distance between the sisters is no longer something they can easily ignore. Old resentments return, and the choices that have shaped their individual lives come under scrutiny.
That intimate family conflict has now earned the film a place in Nigeria’s Oscar campaign.
The Nigerian Official Selection Committee, the body responsible for choosing the country’s entry for the Academy Awards, selected Dear Ajayi after reviewing eligible submissions. The announcement means the film will proceed to the Academy’s consideration stage, where it will compete for attention alongside submissions from film industries across the world.
NOSC Chairperson Stephanie Linus welcomed the selection and congratulated the filmmakers behind the production.
“We congratulate the filmmakers behind Dear Ajayi on their selection,” Linus said.
She added, “We look forward to presenting the film for the Academy’s consideration and wish the team every success in the next stage of the process.”
The film must first pass through the Academy’s consideration process before the final shortlist and nominees for Best International Feature Film are announced.
The 99th Academy Awards will therefore provide the next test for Dear Ajayi as the Academy weighs submissions from different countries and film industries.
For Nigerian cinema, the significance lies not only in the competition ahead but also in the story being taken to the international stage: a drama rooted in southwestern Nigeria, built around the emotional complexities of family and told through the lives of two sisters confronting the past while dealing with the realities of the present.
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