At the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) premiere of ‘Son of the Soil’, Wingonia Ikpi stopped to reflect on a watershed year: the nomination of ‘The Lost Days’ for the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) debut‑director category, the film’s release and reception, and the upcoming short film directed by Anu Bamidele, ‘Nollybabes’.
Ikpi continues to layer her roles (director, producer, and storyteller) as each step shapes her emerging creative signature.
When the morning message popped up, “Wingonia, you’ve been nominated”, Ikpi said she was floored. Her debut feature, The Lost Days, sits at the centre of that moment. She emphasised that the nomination was a “testament” to the work of her cast and crew, highlighting how detailed the preparation was, noting that she had written a 125‑page treatment for the film.
The film, produced under the First Features Project banner, brought Ikpi’s lens on grief, silence and familial distance and helped theatre‑maker Ifeoma Fafunwa make her screen acting debut.
At AFRIFF, Ikpi appeared as producer on ‘Son of the Soil’, a high‑octane action title that positions Nigeria for global action cinema and is part of a first‑look pipeline via Nile Entertainment and Action Xtreme.
While her role as director on ‘The Lost Days’ is intimate and character‑driven, here she steps into the producer space. That shift, Ikpi says, underlines an expanding creative scope, from the slow‑burn domestic drama to full‑throttle action.
At AFRIFF she referenced the “hard work” and “detail” that go into every film she makes and that the duality of an introspective director versus a strategic producer is becoming a distinguishing feature of her career.
She also revealed that the trailer for ‘Nollybabes’, a short film “that centres around women”, would drop before the end of this year, indicating a continuity of a filmmaker who is increasingly defining her voice around female experiences behind and in front of the camera.
