{"id":1759273,"date":"2026-02-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1759273"},"modified":"2026-02-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:00:00","slug":"wonderland-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1759273","title":{"rendered":"Wonderland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\tWonderland<\/span>
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\n\t\t\tAKINOLA\u2019S HEADED FOR SOMETHING MORE<\/span>
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After 16 years in the industry, Akinola Davies Jr. has reached a career pinnacle that many only dream of \u2013 a BIFA-winning, BAFTA-nominated, deeply personal debut feature, My Father\u2019s Shadow<\/em>. Yet for the British-Nigerian filmmaker, it feels like a return to the starting line.<\/h3>\n
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\"Akinola\u2019s
Akinola wears shirts & trousers HERM\u00c8S; vest COS; watch CARTIER<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Jazz instrumentals twinkle in the background as 40-year-old filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr. tucks into his well-earned lunch at Lancaster Gates\u2019 The Roseate, a cream-pillared hotel that blends into a row of refurbished mansions. John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Billie Holiday hum, whistle, and riff through the dining room from the moment he unveils the cloche insulating his meal \u2013 a small serving of a juicy lamb chop, creamy mashed potatoes and an nduja-like paste, with caramelised greens \u2013 to well beyond the point he sets his cutlery down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Akinola is the tall, handsome co-writer, producer, and director you share 100 plus mutuals with on Instagram, and whose name is everywhere: the man tagged in stories alongside the likes of presenter Julie Adenuga, designer Priya Ahluwalia, and Climax Books owner Isabella Burley at some after party deep into awards season. He\u2019s also now sat across from me \u2013 fresh from wearing Cartier on set \u2013 in an \u2018ADJ\u2019-embroidered beanie pulled over a green camo durag (to preserve his braids), zipped into a black bomber jacket.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Akinola\u2019s
Akinola wears top ACNE STUDIOS; jewellery & earrings Akinola\u2019s own (throughout)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Some rare January sun shines through the window as we sit together after his shoot, which wrapped early \u2013 to no surprise. For a film director, a sharp focus, plan of action, and time management are key components in creating something beautiful. As is the case for Akinola, whose plans, goals, and schedule have piled up increasingly so in the last year, and for the better. \u201cI want to learn a craft, and in order to learn a craft, you have to be very submissive to the process,\u201d he says. \u201cBut that process takes a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

From West London to West Africa, and a stint on the East Coast attending a filmmaking workshop in New York in between, his formative years were spent in geographical limbo. Coming to terms with what it meant to live dually made navigating his British-Nigerian identity somewhat distorting. \u201cGrowing up between both made me feel \u2013 still makes me feel \u2013 like an outsider, disenfranchised within [my] own community,\u201d he shares. \u201cI think that\u2019s quite an interesting place to exist. It\u2019s affected me in many ways.\u201d In work, \u201cI don\u2019t really clamour to be the exception or dramatic. I\u2019m just very interested in what happens in the middle.\u201d But he likes to see himself as a bridge between both, comfortably residing in that inbetween.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It makes sense, then, that his way into storytelling came via the scenic route rather than some neat, preordained plan. That\u2019s where it feels all his \u2018best bits\u2019 came from. One of them being his aspiration towards film, which came quite suddenly \u2013 not at all as predestined and serendipitous as my assumptions allowed for. \u201cI don\u2019t even think I decided [on it]. I was very fortunate enough to stumble upon it,\u201d he says, wiping off leftover makeup from the shoot with the blue-pack Neutrogena wipes. \u201cI only wanted to do film because my best friend in year nine, or whatever, his dad was a [film] editor, and I just loved their family structure. I was like, \u2018Whatever your dad does, I want to do that\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he made headway towards that very goal, bringing opportunities that could have felt out of way, well within reach. From media intern to supporting producers on set, researching gigs to video edits for Boiler Room, and producing series for the BBC, he took every opportunity as gospel. Eventually, it\u2019d land him right behind the lens rather than near it, earning him director on the credits of luxury fashion campaigns for Gucci. And somewhere in that, a short stint as a DJ under the moniker Crackstevens, playing a small (but notable) part in PDA club nights alongside model-musician Ms Carrie Stacks, casting director Mischa Notcutt, and DJ Siobhan Bell at the Bar A Bar on Hackney\u2019s Kingsland Road \u2013 nestling himself in a safe space that simultaneously expanded his collaborative scope.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Akinola\u2019s
Akinola wears jacket FERRAGAMO; watch CARTIER<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Eventually, after years of graft, he\u2019d find his forte with longform film \u2013 an outlet for storytelling that felt most Akinola. \u201cThe idea of making long films made me believe, a lot more, that what I\u2019m doing is possible, and can be accepted, celebrated, and feel important,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you told me 16 years ago that I was going to make a feature film, go to festivals, and have a theatrical release, I maybe would have believed it, but I certainly wouldn\u2019t have believed I would be having this experience [that] I\u2019m having now,\u201d with his debut feature-length film, My Father\u2019s Shadow<\/em>, starring British-Nigerian actor \u1e62\u1ecdp\u1eb9\u0301 D\u00ecr\u00eds\u00f9.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019d developed a taste for it after the success of his 2020 breakthrough short Lizard<\/em>, which he wrote alongside his brother Wale, won him the Short Film Grand Jury prize at Sundance Film Festival a year later. That proved to be a turning point. He recalls Eva Yates, the BBC\u2019s Director of Film, saying to him: \u201cYou\u2019ve been making short narratives for longer than you think.\u201d So, for Akinola, it was simply time for the frame to extend. \u201cI think it\u2019s a political act to make those visuals a lot longer, because I think Black people need to be able to embellish longform \u2013 equally, it\u2019s shooting 16mm in Nigeria. I want Africans and Black people to look as beautiful in the most beautiful format. That\u2019s a political choice,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, for My Father\u2019s Shadow<\/em>, he dug into their own history. Within West African cultures, the role of the father figure is a tale as old as time. Written with Wale, the idea for the film came from a moment of shared recollection. \u201c[Wale] had written a letter to our late father, and turned that into a short story,\u201d he shares, marking the start of a new emotional first for him. \u201cHe sent it to me completely unprompted. I read it, and had a huge emotional response \u2013 basically cried in bed for like, half an hour. Then I called him, and we spoke about it, and I just told him it was really beautiful\u2026that I never really thought of my father being vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Akinola\u2019s
Akinola wears cape DIOR MEN; glasses JACQUES MARIE MAGE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This complex thread of masculinity, and how it coincides with human emotion, is one he delves into. Portrayed powerfully through \u1e62\u1ecdp\u1eb9\u0301\u2019s role as Folarin, and real-life and in-film brothers Chibuike and Godwin Egbo, who play his sons, Akin and Remi, he explores how \u201cas men, we have a responsibility to hold ourselves accountable. So, how can we do the work of rectifying those things within our community as men?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite Folarin\u2019s \u201cstoic and strong\u201d surface persona, as Akinola recognises African fathers often are, his love and affection for his sons is sure and ever-present \u2013 this is the nuance he wants to rectify as truth. \u201cWe want everyone to hold a certain type of masculinity accountable, present context and nuance to how that masculinity has to be performed, why it\u2019s performed in that way, and external factors around it,\u201d he says of the film\u2019s message. \u201cWhatever we do, we don\u2019t want to add to the canon of stereotypical perceptions of what it means to be African or an African man or fatherhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the film garnered widespread critical acclaim. At the Cannes Film Festival, it was awarded the Special Mention for the Cam\u00e9ra d\u2019Or (Golden Camera) \u2013 the first Nigerian film to be included in the festival\u2019s official selection in Un Certain Regard. Then, there were the 12 BIFA nominations, the cherry on top being his Best Director win, and now, a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer. But despite the accolades, he refuses to let it shake his focus. \u201cEven though I\u2019ve been through a year of festivals, being happy, winning awards across the globe, and the film has a lot of acclaim and stuff, this is still the moment that we\u2019ve been working towards,\u201d he says. \u201cThe festivals and the awards, albeit great, are a distraction from this moment. This is the moment that we\u2019ve all been working towards. Something more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of these experiences, that signature Nigerian Yoruba cadence and London twang in full, his responses are packed with poem and punch. It\u2019s easy to forget that this is merely his beginning. \u201cI\u2019m at my infancy, in terms of being a director,\u201d he says adamantly. \u201cThere\u2019s still a lot to learn \u2013 a lot to try \u2013 and explore as well. So many people have a long established, pretty full body of work. I am someone who thinks, \u2018I want to be doing this until I\u2019m 60, 70\u2019, so there\u2019s still quite a long way to go.\u201d But for Akinola, this is the work of a lifetime \u2013 and he\u2019s off to a triumphant start.<\/p>\n

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\"Akinola\u2019s<\/figure>
Left: Akinola wears shirt + trousers SAGE TODA-NATION; vest top CALVIN KLEIN; glasses JACQUES MARIE MAGE; watch CARTIER. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Photography<\/strong> by Guy Lowndes
Styling<\/strong> by Rudy Simba Betty
Words<\/strong> by Aswan Magumbe
Grooming<\/strong> by Bianca-Simone Scott at Forward Artists
Fashion Intern<\/strong> Scarlett Milroy
Videography<\/strong> by James Cox
Videography Assistant<\/strong> Andre Vasiljev
Special Thanks<\/strong> to The Roseate House<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t6 February 2026\t\t\t<\/div>\n
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Film & TV<\/a><\/div>\n
Magazine<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\tThe era that never was<\/span> <\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wonderland AKINOLA\u2019S HEADED FOR SOMETHING MORE After 16 years in the industry, Akinola Davies Jr. has reached a career pinnacle that many only dream of \u2013 a BIFA-winning, BAFTA-nominated, deeply personal debut feature, My Father\u2019s Shadow. Yet for the British-Nigerian filmmaker, it feels like a return to the starting line. Akinola wears shirts & trousers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,257],"class_list":["post-1759273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-wonderlandmagazine-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1759273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1759273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1759273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1759273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}