NOLLYWOOD FILMS FAIL OSCARS ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

The Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) for the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences has announced that Nigerian films that were submitted by Nigerian filmmakers for consideration for Oscars 2022 failed to meet eligibility criteria.

This was made known by the chairperson of the NOSC, Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi, on their Instagram page writing, “After a series of deliberations by the Committee members, we regret to announce that there won’t be a submission of a film to represent the country for the 94th Academy Awards. This is due to the fact that the films received so far for screening failed the eligibility rule test set by the Academy. The Committee is committed to ensuring that the film which would eventually represent the country at the 94th Academy Awards in the International Feature Film category meets all eligibility rules and technical requirements for the competition.”

The chairperson has also spoken on the need for Nigerian filmmakers to learn about the rules of the Academy. She stated this while expressing optimism that Nollywood will be better prepared for subsequent editions of the Oscars.

Just so you know, the Best International Feature Film Category Award is presented annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains fifty per cent or more of non-English dialogue.

If you would recall, in 2020, the Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) announced that the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences had approved pidgin English as an eligibility criterion after Genevieve Nnaji’s ‘Lionheart’ was disqualified for failing the language criteria in 2019.