Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor

Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor is an award-winning filmmaker and founder of Joi Productions. She produced the box-office hit Blue Story (2019) and Aml Ameen’s Boxing Day (2021), the UK’s first all-Black Christmas film, and was named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow and a BAFTA Breakthrough in 2020. Joi Productions also received a BFI Vision Award and later partnered with Ringside Studio. More recently Joy has produced Ashley Walters’ debut feature film Animol for BFI, F4 and Sky Studios. She’s also producing Billy Lumby’s debut, Florid for BBC Film, along with having projects in development at BFI, BBC Film, F4, Searchlight and MiraMax to name a few.

As a director, Joy’s short For Love (2021), supported by BBC Film, premiered at the BFI London Film Festival where it was nominated for Best Short, before screening at SXSW, Aspen, Outfest and BlackStar, winning multiple awards.

Her debut feature Dreamers (2025) premiered in the Panorama section at the 75th Berlinale, where it was nominated for the Teddy Award, and went on to compete at BFI London Film Festival for the First Features Sutherland Award. The film has since screened internationally at Frameline in San Francisco and GAZE in Dublin, where it won Joint Best Feature Film.

With Dreamers, Joy has established herself as a bold new voice in British cinema, crafting intimate, lyrical stories that centre underrepresented voices while reaching audiences worldwide.