Ace movie Producer/Director, Adekunle Ayodeji Afolayan is one of Nigeria’s foremost “2nd generation filmmaker “ and son of the highly respected Adeyemi Afolayan (Ade-Love), a passionate theatre artist who co-pioneered the movement from travelling theatre to the celluloid film format as introduced by Ola Balogun.
Having trained as a Business Administrator, and with a career in Banking, Kunle was cast into Tunde Kelani’s multiple award-winning movies Saworoide, earning him the first accolades and first appearance in the industry. In his commitment to self – improvement and professional excellence, Kunle enrolled at the New York Film Academy in 2005 and thereafter began to shoot short feature pieces. His first full-length movie, Irapada, gave credence to the unique ability and versatility, Kunle has shown great tenacity by paying great attention to details, giving creative interpretation to the issues of life, problems of the society; and by the almost-uncanny ability to bring his subject to life on film.
The works of Kunle Afolayan and has garnered acclaim and set box office records to unprecedented proportions. In the past 13 years of existence, Kunle Afolayan has gone to produce six successful and widely acclaimed feature films, namely; Irapada (Redemption), The Figurine (Araromire), Phone Swap, October 1, The C.E.O, and the Africa Magic commissioned trio Omugwo, Roti and The Tribunal most of which have been featured and showcased variously at international film festivals across the globe.
Presently, his most recent film, Mokalik has been ranked 2019 highest grossing Nigeria film at the box office, after 3 weeks of release in the cinemas. Numerous awards and honours have been given to both the man and his works. Some of which includes;
BEST ACTOR – AFRO HOLLYWOOD AWARD UK 2004
BEST ACTOR – BEST OF NOLLYWOOD AWARD 2008
BEST DIRECTOR – BEST OF NOLLYWOOD AWARD 2010
BEST DIRECTOR – NIGERIA ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS NY
BEST FILM – AFRICAN MOVIE ACADEMY AWARDS 2010
BEST FILMMAKER – NIGERIA HEART OF AFRICA
BEST MOVIE – NOLLYWOOD MOVIES AWARD 2013
TOP BOX OFFICE – NOLLYWOOD MOVIES AWARDS 2013
BEST FEATURE FILM (OCTOBER 1) – A FRIFF 2014
BEST ACTOR (OCTOBER 1) – AFRIFF 2014
BEST SCREENPLAY (OCTOBER 1) – AFRIFF 2014
BEST MOVIE OF 2014 – AMVCA 2014
BEST MOV IE DIRECTOR – AMVCA 2014
PROGAMMERS’ AWARD NARRATIVE FEATURE – PAFF
BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR – MULTICHOICE AMVCA
BEST NIGERIAN FILM (NOMINATION) – AMAA (2016)