Actress Genevieve Nnaji‘s movie effort ‘Lion heart’ selected to
represent Nigeria in the International Feature Film category of the
2020 Oscars has been disqualified.
It was gathered that the academy in a mail on Monday, said ‘Lion
Heart’ was disqualified as it violates a rule.
Every year, each country outside the United States is expected to
submit one film as long as it’s not primarily in English.
The movie is Nigeria’s first-ever submission to the Academy Awards,
but it has just under 12 minutes of dialogue that is in the Igbo
language native to Southeastern Nigeria, while the rest of the
94-minute pic is in English.
‘Lion Heart’ is however not excluded from entering other Oscar
categories, including consideration for best picture.
In her reaction, Genevieve in a tweet, gave the ‘Academy’ some
reasons‘Lion Heart’ should be considered.
She made the tweet while replying American filmmaker, Ava DuVernay who
called out the Academy and questioning the authenticity of their
judgement with regards to the disqualification of ‘Lion Heart’.
Ava said: “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?”
Replying her tweet, Genevieve wrote; “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.”
“2/2 It’s no different to how French connects communities in former
French colonies. We did not choose who colonized us. As ever, this
film and many like it, is proudly Nigerian.”
