Nigerian Film, Lizard Wins Grand Jury Prize At Sundance

Nigeria’s Sundance 2021 short film submission, ‘Lizard’ has made history as the first Nigerian production to win a grand jury short film prize.
Directed by Akinola Davies Jnr, and shot in Lagos, Lizard follows the story of a nine-year old girl who gets thrown out of Sunday School for her unusual abilities. The film had its world premiere at the prestigious festival.
”Reacting to his movie’s Sundance win, Akinola wrote on Instagram, “literally a year to this day we started on a project conceived from a bunch of my childhood memories. Today, I’m so greatful to @ Sundance.org for awarding Lizard the grand jury prize for shorts. I’m overwhelmed and as much as I’d love to gloat, filmmaking is really crazy hard, Big love to all those who were part of the shorts programme, it’s an honour to be amongst such brilliant films.
The film was Nigeria’s only Sundance 2021 submission. Its major success comes two years after Nigeria’s filmmaker, Chinonye Chukwu became the first black woman to win a Sundance film festival’s grand jury prize for her US film “Clemency”.