Dapo Adeniyi Appointed Cannes Film Festival Juror

The Pan-African International Film Festival, Cannes, France has appointed Nigerian producer, film director and writer Dapo Adeniyi as a member of its jury for the 2018 edition.

The responsibilities of the film festival jury traditionally includes the selection of film submissions from a universal pool which make the “Official Selection” as well as determining the shortlists and ultimate winners for the vast array of festival prizes and awards announced every year.

Last week, the announcement in Cannes states, “The Pan-African International Film Festival is honoured to count Mr. Adeniyi among its jury members for the 15th edition from 18-22 April, 2018.”

The letter to Adeniyi also says, “Indeed your qualities as producer, journalist and literary person overwhelmed us. We appreciated it during your presence in Cannes in 2016. That encounter gave us the opportunity to discover the richness of your expertise. You had indeed participated in that 13th edition with your film AKE which was in official selection.

“Our aim is to provide pan-African film makers the choice of excellence by offering them a jury composed of the best film and audio-visual professionals. Your presence in Cannes (equally in the capacity of a lecturer) will also be for us the opportunity to show our public a view on one of the world’s biggest emerging film industries that Nigeria is.”

Adeniyi who directed and produced the childhood memoir AKE by Wole Soyinka which was adapted for film is also a well-known arts journalist and editor. The film is set in World War II Nigeria and was premiered in Lagos. It was also screened in film festivals in the United States and Europe.

The full citation on the director states, “Adeniyi started his career on radio and television. His first play was broadcast on BBC World Service in 1986. He also became a British Council Fellow in Downing College, University of Cambridge in 1994. He was appointed to write the television adaptation for the famous childhood memoir by Wole Soyinka entitled Ake by the Nigerian Television Authority, which he eventually adapted for film and directed and screened in Lagos and Cannes in 2016.

‘He has also been a prominent name in Nigerian literature and journalism and has translated indigenous literature to English and also served as editor for arts and culture for the Nigerian Times. He was a visiting editor to The Times Literary Supplement of London.”