By Uche Mbah
Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart has been disqualified in the Best International Feature Film Category by the Oscar Academy for not having a “predominantly non-English dialogue track”, according to the Oscar academy, thus ending the hopes of the flick being nominated by the Oscar Committee.
Lionheart is Nnaji’s Directorial debut.
The Nigerian Committee had unanimously chosen the flick to represent the country at the Oscar, which is unmistakably a Nigerian film. But the Academy, in an email members Monday, said despite the film having some Igbo parts, it is predominantly shot in English, thereby violating the Academy rule which states that the films must have a “predominantly non-English dialogue track” to qualify for the category.
English is the Official language of Nigeria, a country that has over 400 different ethnic groups and languages, though there are three major ethnic bocks.
Nnaji’s film was one of the 29 flicks directed by women submitted to the Academy this year out of a total of 93 and has been adjudged as having what it takes to win the award. It was expected to screen for Voters on Wednesday alongside the African films like Senegal’s Atlantics and Ghana’s Azali. Africa submitted ten films this year.
Critics of the Academy say the the Academy practices tongue-in-the-cheek racism, having a history of prioritizing white casts and Directors, deliberately and consistently ignoring first class flicks from the rest of the world, and pouring them into the witches cauldron of a category that was previously called “Best Foreign Language Film” but recently baptized “Best International features film”. Though the new name removed the language barrier, the article remains the same, making critics to dismiss the Oscar terms as outmoded.
Nnaji herself took to Twitter to react to the disqualification.” I am the Director of Lionheart”, she said. “This movie represents the way we speak as Nigerians. This includes English which acts as a bridge between the 5000+ languages spoken in our country, thereby making us #one Nigeria.
“It is no different to how (the) French connects communities in former french Colonies. We did not choose who colonized us. As Ever, this Film and many like it (are) proudly Nigerian”.
Reactions over the social media has been that of outrage and disappointments, as the excitement over the nomination has turned to outrage.
