The Oscars Award
Academy has disqualified Nigeria’s ‘Lionheart’ from the Oscar race in the Best
International Feature Film category.
News Agency of
Nigeria reports that the Academy dropped the Genevieve Nnaji directorial debut,
for having too much English dialogue.
The Academy’s
criteria for best international feature film category states that it awards
film’s made outside the United States with a predominantly non-English
dialogue.
This drop by the
Oscars has reduced the number of films competing for the award to 92 from what
had been a record 93 entries.
The disqualification
also drops the number of female directors in this year’s race to 28, which is
still a category record.
NAN reports that it was
the first film ever submitted to the Oscars by Nigeria.
‘Lionheart’, in which
Nnaji also stars, is partially in the Igbo language. But it is mostly in
English, which seemed to violate the category’s criterion.
The film had not been
vetted by the Academy’s International Feature Film Award Executive Committee in
advance of the October 7 announcement of qualifying films.
It was however,
recently viewed and determined not to qualify in a category that until this
year was known as Best Foreign Language Film.
The Academy announced
the disqualification of ‘Lionheart’ to voters in the category in an email on
Monday.
The film was
scheduled to screen for Academy voters in the international category on
Wednesday in a double bill with the Honduran entry, ‘Blood, Passion, and
Coffee’.
Following the
announcement, several film enthusiasts went on social media to share their
thoughts, including award-winning director, Ava DuVernay.
DuVernay, who
empathised with Nigeria wrote, “To @TheAcademy, You disqualified Nigeria’s
first-ever submission for Best International Feature because its in English.
“But English is the
official language of Nigeria. Are you barring this country from ever competing
for an Oscar in its official language?”
Responding to
DuVernay, Genevieve Nnaji, who directed ‘Lion Heart’ said, “Thank you so much
@ava. I am the director of Lionheart. This movie represents the way we speak as
Nigerians.
“This includes
English which acts as a bridge between the 500+ languages spoken in our
country; thereby making us #OneNigeria. @TheAcademy.”
@Comemare said, “This
category is for films that are in predominantly other languages, not English.
Since your film is mostly in English, it can compete in all the other major
categories, along with other English language films from Australia, Canada,
Ireland, UK, etc. No one excluded your film.”
@Samirasawlani said,
“Lionheart was today disqualified from the Oscar’s Best Intl Film because it is
mostly in English.
“Nigeria was
colonised by the Brits. English is an official language in the country. You
really can’t win with this lot. Quite literally cannot win.”
@TravRicardson wrote,
“I definitely feel you, this category was just changed from Best Foreign
Language Film to the very vague Best International Feature Film. Seems like
they are going to the foreign language requirement.
“I guess they don’t
take into account countries that speak English. It’s dumb!”
@Royalmusings said,
“The category is for non-English language movies. Canada has had
French-language films nominated. Had the movie been in Hausa or Yoruba. It
would have been accepted.”
Credit: NAN
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