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<\/p>\nThe Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs. Toke Benson-Awoyinka, joined global creatives at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in France to celebrate the international premiere of My Father\u2019s Shadow, a groundbreaking Nigerian film that underscores the power of storytelling and cross-cultural collaboration.<\/p>\n
Directed by British-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr., My Father\u2019s Shadow made history as the first Nigerian-set fiction film to be selected for the prestigious Un Certain Regard section of the festival.<\/p>\n
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Born in London to Nigerian parents, Davies, alongside his brother and co-writer, Wale Davies, crafted a deeply resonant narrative exploring themes of family, fatherhood, nationhood, and identity\u2014bridging experiences from both Nigeria and the UK. \u201cThis film is a testament to the power of collaboration. It\u2019s ultimately about family, about nationhood and fatherhood. It means so much to our community back home in Nigeria, and across the continent, to be premiering at such a prestigious festival,\u201d Davies shared.<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s success is bolstered by a robust network of creative partners, including Element Pictures, Fatherland, BBC, BFI, MUBI, Match Factory, Fremantle, and Le Pec\u2014showcasing how international collaboration can elevate African narratives on the global stage.<\/p>\n
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Benson-Awoyinka\u2019s presence at Cannes underscores Lagos State\u2019s commitment to nurturing the creative industries and promoting Nigerian talent on world-renowned platforms.<\/p>\n
Adeoti Sobowale<\/p>\n
Deputy Director, Public Affairs<\/p>\n
MTAC<\/p>\n
23rd May 2025<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs. Toke Benson-Awoyinka, joined global creatives at the 2025 Cannes Film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainments-and-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14292,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14288\/revisions\/14292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}