Lionheart: ‘Your Criteria Is Valid, But So Is Our Reality’ – Nigerians React To Oscars’ Disqualification Of Genevieve’s Film
Twitter is currently agog with reactions from Nigerians over the disqualification of Genevieve Nnaji’s ‘Lionheart’ movie by the Oscars Award Academy.
Lionheart, which is the first film to be ever submitted by Nigeria to the Academy, was disqualified for having too much dialogue in English.
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The movie first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018 and was against 92 countries around the globe at the award scheduled for February 9, 2020, in Los Angeles, United States.
Lionheart was disqualified for falling short of the requirement that films submitted in the international feature category must have “a predominantly non-English dialogue track,” whereas only about 11 minutes of the 95-minute film was not in English dialogue.
Genevieve had in reaction tried to justify the use of English in the movie, saying: “This movie represents the way we speak as Nigerians,” which she said “includes English which acts as a bridge between the 500+ languages spoken in our country.”
The actress argued that, “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.”
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Meanwhile, movie lovers have continued to air mixed reactions after Lionheart’s disqualification was announced to voters by the Academy on Monday.
Hollywood movie Director Ava DuVernay expressed disappointment at the news: “To @TheAcademy, you disqualified Nigeria’s first-ever submission for Best International Feature because it’s 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?”
However, in its reaction, the Nigeria Oscar Selection Committee said shooting movies “with non-English recording dialogue” had always been a challenge for Nigerian filmmakers who often produced films with the aim of reaching a wide audience.
Other reactions from Nigerians on Twitter are curated below:
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