Akinola Davies Jr. has been on quite the run this year. The British-Nigerian filmmaker’s feature directorial debut, My Father’s Shadow, premiered in the Un Certain Regard program at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it received a special mention for the Camera d’Or Award. More recently, the Lagos-set coming-of-age tale led the nominations for the 2025 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) with 12 nods. It is also the official U.K. submission for the best international feature film Oscar.
Previously, Davies’ narrative short Lizard premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, winning the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and getting nominated for the BAFTA for Best British Short. In addition to his work in narrative film, he has directed music videos for such artists as Kae Tempest, Neneh Cherry and Blood Orange, plus he has worked on projects with such brands as Gucci, Kenzo and Louis Vuitton, in front of and behind the camera.
With all the attention that Davies has received this year, it made all the sense in the world to see his name on the 2025 BAFTA Breakthrough Brits list of up-and-coming U.K. industry talent, supported by Netflix, unveiled on Tuesday.
However, the creative himself was taken by surprise by his inclusion in the latest Breakthrough cohort. “I got an email, and in true Akinola fashion, I just kind of skimmed through it, but didn’t really read it,” Davies tells THR. “I thought I was just being invited to something.” He later decided to give the message his full attention. “I went back and read it, and it was like, ‘Congratulations!’ And I thought, ‘holy shit.’ But … it wasn’t up until I spoke to the guys at BAFTA, and they explained stuff that I [realized]: ‘Oh my god, it’s real.’”
What does Davies hope to get out of the BAFTA Breakthrough experience? “I just want to speak to people. I just want to know the details of what people went through to get stuff made, and what aspects of their niche part within the industry they really geek out on. Because I just want to learn more. I want to be a real student of the craft.”
Davies says he loves the idea of talking to a broad range of artists to “coalesce a huge amount of opinions from everyone,” including people who work below the line and in different departments. “Because anything that helps me and helps my departments collaborate, I’m super happy about. … I want to come out of it and feel like I’ve been to the best film holiday camp.”
Davies is aware that it can open further doors to be part of the U.K. BAFTA Breakthrough group. “I think it also massively increases my profile as a filmmaker, and I can’t be naive to that,” he tells THR. “And I want to take that on with a sense of responsibility to just keep learning and being a student as best as I can, moving that into future projects, and continually earn the right to be here.”
Davies is excited that an old friend is also part of the latest Breakthrough Brits, namely Nathalie Pitters, director of photography on Brian and Maggie. “I used to work on reception in an ad agency way back in the day, and a young woman came in and sat next to me, and her name is Nathalie Pitters. We started talking and we really get on,” the filmmaker recalls. “I’m like, ‘What do you want to do?’ And she says, ‘I take pictures, but I want to be a cinematographer.’ I said, ‘Oh, well, hopefully one day I’ll be a director and we can work with each other.’ And we subsequently did. We worked on some small productions together.”
When they found out that they were both on the BAFTA Breakthrough list it felt extra special. “It’s such a crazy story,” says Davies. “We both had this moment of just remembering, 16 or even 17 years ago, being on that desk in reception, being office runners buying fruit and milk for the office, and having this dream in the distance. And both arriving here at the same time is so wild.”
Has Davies had much contact with Netflix and its team before being on the Breakthrough list? “No, I haven’t,” he shares. “I really haven’t had the privilege of meeting people at Netflix. So, yeah, Netflix, give me a shout!”
