Desmond Ovbiagele

Following undergraduate and Masters degrees in business (University of Lagos, Imperial College London), Desmond Ovbiagele worked for over a decade in investment banking at Citigroup and other financial institutions before exiting to pursue a passion for movie production.

He wrote, produced and co-directed his debut feature film, Render to Caesar, which was selected in 2015 to screen in official competition at FESPACO (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso), Africa’s largest film festival, as well as at the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) in Los Angeles, America’s largest and most prestigious black film festival. It also received awards for Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay at the Nollywood Movies Awards and Best of Nollywood (BON) Awards respectively, as well as the award for Best International Feature Film at the Nile Diaspora International Film Festival in Kampala, Uganda.

His second feature film, The Milkmaid, which he also wrote, produced and directed, was selected as Nigeria’s official entry to the 93rd Academy Awards in the category of Best International Feature Film. It also received five awards at the 16th Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) , including for Best Film and Best Supporting Actress.