Academy Disqualifies Nigeria’s Oscar Entry ‘Lionheart’

Genevieve Nnaji’s ‘Lionheart‘ movies was the first film ever submitted to the Oscars by Nigeria.

The Academy has disqualified Nigeria’s Lionheart from the Oscar race in the Best International Feature Film category, dropping the number of films competing for the award to 92 from what had been a record 93 entries.

What would have been a groundbreaking breakthrough for Nigeria’s Nollywood industry has now sparked debates across the country leaving many to wonder if our official language as a nation is actually been recognized by our colonial masters in this present day.

Lionheart, in which Nnaji also stars, is partially in the Igbo language of Nigeria. But it is mostly in English, which violates an Academy rule that entries in the category must have “a predominantly non-English dialogue track.”

1/1 1/2 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 https://t.co/LMfWDDNV3e

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— Genevieve Nnaji MFR (@GenevieveNnaji1) November 4, 2019

Also read: NOLLYWOOD: GENEVIEVE’S MOVIE, LIONHEART, MAKES THE OSCAR’S NOMINATION LISTS