Nigeria is back in the Academy Awards race with Damilola Orimogunje’s Dear Ajayi, but the bigger story is not simply that Nollywood has another Oscar submission. It is whether Nigeria has finally found a film capable of breaking a cycle that has lasted since 2019.

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For an industry as large, prolific and culturally influential as Nollywood, there is one international milestone that has remained frustratingly out of reach, an Oscar nomination. Nigeria has produced films that have travelled to international festivals, attracted major audiences, won awards and introduced distinctly Nigerian stories to viewers around the world. Yet when it comes to the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, the country has never made the final five.

Now, Nigeria is trying again. This time, the film carrying the country’s hopes is Damilola Orimogunje’s Dear Ajayi, a family drama that has already made an impression outside Nigeria before being selected as the country’s official submission for the 99th Academy Awards.

But before asking whether Dear Ajayi can make history, it is worth understanding how Nigeria got here.

Nigeria’s Oscar Journey Has Been Anything But Straightforward

Nigeria made its first submission in 2019 with Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart. The film was an important moment for Nollywood. It was the first time Nigeria officially entered the International Feature Film race, with Nnaji directing and starring as Adaeze Obiagu, a young woman who steps forward to help save her family’s transportation business.

Then came an unexpected setback. The Academy disqualified Lionheart because most of its dialogue was in English. The decision immediately sparked a wider conversation about Nigerian cinema, language and the requirements of the International Feature Film category.

The experience also highlighted an uncomfortable reality. Being Nigerian is not enough to qualify a film for the category. The Academy has specific eligibility requirements, including the requirement that more than 50 per cent of a qualifying film’s dialogue be in languages other than English, alongside theatrical and technical requirements. Nigerian Pidgin is recognized as a qualifying non English language.

For Nigeria, the Oscar journey had begun with a disqualification rather than a nomination.

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The Milkmaid Took the Next Step

Nigeria returned to the competition with Desmond Ovbiagele’s The Milkmaid. The Hausa language drama moved away from the language problem that had affected Lionheart, telling a story centered on two sisters whose lives are devastated by conflict and extremism in Northern Nigeria.

The film was accepted into the Oscar race, but it did not make the final shortlist. That was still progress. Nigeria had gone from having its first submission disqualified to having a film actually enter the Academy’s consideration process.

But the final breakthrough remained elusive.

Then Came Mami Wata

If The Milkmaid demonstrated the importance of indigenous language, C.J. Obasi’s Mami Wata demonstrated something else, the power of visual identity.

The 2023 film drew from West African mythology surrounding Mami Wata and was shot entirely in striking black and white. Its visual language immediately separated it from conventional Nollywood productions.

The film travelled internationally and attracted significant attention, but once again, Nigeria’s Oscar campaign stopped before the nomination stage.

Mami Wata did, however, reinforce an important idea. It clearly identified that Nigerian films do not have to imitate Hollywood to compete internationally. They can lean harder into their own mythology, aesthetics, language and cultural identity.

Mai Martaba Continued the Indigenous Language Push

Nigeria’s next submission was Mai Martaba, a Hausa language historical epic directed by Prince Daniel Aboki. The film continued the country’s movement towards indigenous language filmmaking and represented another attempt to present Nigerian storytelling to the Academy on its own cultural terms.

But once again, it did not reach the final shortlist. At this point, a pattern was becoming difficult to ignore. Nigeria could submit films, could produce ambitious films with strong Nigerian identities. But something was still missing when it came to converting those submissions into an Oscar shortlist appearance.

Then Nigeria Did Something Unusual, It Submitted Nothing

This is perhaps the most overlooked part of Nigeria’s Oscar story. For the 98th Academy Awards, Nigeria did not submit a film. The Nigerian Official Selection Committee reviewed the films put forward and ultimately determined that none met the standard it was looking for, described as the required level of “creative and technical intentionality.”

That decision may have been disappointing, but it also suggested that the selection process was becoming more deliberate. Rather than simply choosing a film because Nigeria needed an entry, the committee was prepared to say there was no suitable submission.

And that brings us to Dear Ajayi.

So, What Makes ‘Dear Ajayi’ Different?

Written and directed by Damilola Orimogunje, Dear Ajayi is set in southwestern Nigeria in the 1990s. The story follows two estranged sisters, Ade and Titi, whose lives are forced back together when they have to care for their paralyzed mother.

Ade is a devout Christian and the family’s breadwinner, while Titi is an aspiring singer whose independent personality clashes with the expectations surrounding her. Their reunion brings old resentment, family history, grief, ambition, forgiveness and reconciliation back to the surface.

That may sound like a relatively intimate story compared with the grand historical epics and supernatural films that have represented Nigeria in the past. That could actually be one of its strengths.

Dear Ajayi is not trying to explain Nigeria through a giant spectacle. It is looking at Nigeria through a family.

The Language Question Has Also Changed

The film features Yoruba, Igbo and English, giving it a distinctly Nigerian linguistic identity while also reflecting the country’s cultural complexity. That is significant given Nigeria’s experience with Lionheart.

The Academy’s rules require more than half of the dialogue in an International Feature Film to be in languages other than English, and Nigerian Pidgin also qualifies as a non English language under the rules. So, at least on the surface, Dear Ajayi enters the race with a clearer understanding of the language requirements that complicated Nigeria’s first attempt.

But eligibility is only the beginning. The Academy still has to decide whether the film belongs among the world’s strongest international submissions.

It Already Has International Festival Recognition

Perhaps the most encouraging part of Dear Ajayi’s Oscar campaign is that the film is not entering the international conversation for the first time. In September 2026, it competed at Giornate degli Autori, the independent film programme held alongside the Venice International Film Festival.

It went on to win the Enrico Fulchignoni Prize as well as the Bisato d’Oro award for its cast and performances. That gives the film something valuable before Academy voters even begin their process. International exposure, festival credibility and recognition from audiences and critics outside Nigeria.

It also became the first Nigerian film to premiere at Giornate degli Autori, another significant milestone for the production.

But Winning an Oscar Is Still a Long Way Away

This is where we need to separate excitement from reality. Dear Ajayi is Nigeria’s official submission. It is not yet an Oscar nominee. The Academy will still conduct its own eligibility and voting process.

For the 99th Oscars, preliminary voting is scheduled for December 7 to 11, with the 15 film International Feature Film shortlist due on December 15, 2026. The final Oscar nominations will then be announced on January 21, 2027.

The 99th Academy Awards will take place in Los Angeles on March 14, 2027. So there are still several hurdles between Nigeria’s official selection and the Oscar stage.

First, Dear Ajayi has to make the shortlist. Then it has to survive another round of voting to become one of the final five nominees. Only then would Nigeria finally have its first Oscar nomination in the International Feature Film category.

 Maybe This Is the Real Progress

There is an interesting evolution when you put Nigeria’s Oscar journey side by side. Lionheart introduced Nigeria to the competition but was disqualified. The Milkmaid demonstrated the importance of indigenous language. Mami Wata showed that Nigerian cinema could arrive with a bold international visual identity. Mai Martaba continued the indigenous language and historical storytelling approach.

Then Nigeria stepped away for a year rather than submit a film that the selection committee did not consider strong enough. Now Dear Ajayi returns with indigenous languages, an intimate Nigerian story and international festival recognition already attached to its name.

That does not guarantee an Oscar nomination. But it does suggest that Nigeria’s approach is becoming more sophisticated.

The Bigger Question Is What Nollywood Wants to Say to the World

Perhaps the Oscar should not be viewed simply as a trophy. For Nollywood, the more important question is what kind of Nigerian cinema we want international audiences to discover. Do we want them to see our historical epics? Our Yoruba kingdoms? Our contemporary family struggles? Our spirituality, political history, languages, complicated relationships, our humour, our contradictions?

The strongest Nigerian films do not need to choose just one. They can tell deeply local stories and still find universal emotions inside them.

That may be what Dear Ajayi is attempting. It is a story about two sisters, but underneath that is a conversation about family, responsibility, faith, ambition, resentment and forgiveness. Those are Nigerian experiences. But they are also human experiences.

So, Can ‘Dear Ajayi’ Make History?

For now, nobody can say. The competition is global, and Nigeria’s film has to stand alongside submissions from some of the world’s strongest filmmaking countries.

But for the first time in a while, Nigeria’s Oscar conversation feels less like “we have submitted another film” and more like “we may have a film with a genuine international story behind it.”

The film has already reached Venice. It has already won festival recognition. Dear Ajayi carries Nigerian languages and a distinctly Nigerian setting.

Now it has to convince the Academy. If it makes the shortlist on December 15, the conversation changes completely. If it reaches the final five on January 21, Nigeria will finally cross a barrier that has stood since its first submission. If it eventually wins? That would be another story entirely.

For now, Nollywood has sent Dear Ajayi into the race. The question is no longer whether Nigeria will try again. The question is whether this is finally the film that gets Nigeria through the door.

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Desauce Magazine

Desauce Magazine is more than a blog, it is a cultural journal capturing the rhythm of Nigeria. From music and film to lifestyle and social issues, we tell stories that reflect the energy, struggles, and brilliance of our people.