EXCLUSIVE: UK-Nigerian filmmaker Olive Nwosu’s feature debut, Sundance prize winner Lady, has been picked up by Metis Films for UK-Ireland release, from Hanway Films.
It is screening at the BFI London Film Festival in the first feature competition next month.
Metis Films, which was launched by former Altitude and eOne executive Ben Metcalf in 2024, is planning a theatrical release in 2027.
Lady is set in Lagos, Nigeria, and follows a fiercely independent young cab driver who meets a band of radiantly reckless sex workers whose sisterhood pulls her in. Jessica Gabriel’s Ujah, Amanda Oruh and Tinuade Jemisey star in the film that won Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic special jury award for acting ensemble in January.
The film is a UK-Nigeria co-production, produced by Alex Polunin’s Glasgow-based Ossian International, John Giwa-Amu for Good Gate and Stella Nwimo. Co-producers are Adé Sultan Sangodoyin and Jamiu Shoyode of Lagos-based Emperium Films. Financiers include Film4, BFI, Screen Scotland, Level Forward and Amplify Capital.
“Lady began with a desire to capture the Lagos I know – bold, unruly, seductive, dangerous, and alive,” said Nwosu. “And to place at its centre women too often pushed to the edges of the frame. At heart, it’s a film about the freedom we make possible for one another.”
“Featuring a neon-soaked Nigeria as you’ve never seen it before. Olive announces herself as an exciting new cinematic talent,” added Metcalf, who also recently acquired Cannes Critics’ Week winner and BFI London Film Festival premiere La Gradiva.
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