Kleber Mendonça Filho in The Director’s Chair

We sat down with Akinola Davies Jr, who made history as the director of the first Nigerian film to be selected for the Cannes Official Selection, earning a Special Mention for the prestigious Caméra d’Or for Best First Feature. His debut, My Father’s Shadow, is a bold and poetic autobiographical drama set over a single, heady day in Lagos, where two brothers begin to confront the legacy of their estranged father.

Nishtha Jain has played a major role in revitalising the field of Indian independent documentary. Her films are works of searing observation steeped in themes of feminism, class, and caste – and have received numerous awards at festivals the world over. She joins us in The Director’s Chair to share why some stories can’t be ignored.

Jafar Panahi is one of just four filmmakers in history to win top prizes at all of the ‘Big Three’ international film festivals: Cannes, Venice and Berlin. In Sydney for the Australian Premiere of his Palme d’Or and eventual Sydney Film Prize winner IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, he took to the Director’s Chair to tell us about his lifelong pursuit of the “forbidden fruit”.