Nigeria’s movie race entry ‘Lionheart’ disqualified by Oscar Academy

The organizers of the Oscars have disqualified Nigeria’s first-ever entry for consideration in the International Feature Film category because it has too much dialogue in English, according to reports.

According to reports, Organizers says feature does not meet requirements for ‘predominantly non-English dialogue track’.

The disqualification of Lionheart – directed by Genevieve Nnaji, one of the biggest stars of Nigeria’s film industry widely known as Nollywood was conveyed in an email to voters for the category.

According to the rules by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “an international film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (defined as over 40 minutes) produced outside the United States of America with a predominantly non-English dialogue track”.

Lion heart has just less than 12 minutes of dialogue that is in the Igbo language, while the rest of the 95-minute feature is in English, according to Hollywood Reporter.

In a reaction to the disqualification, Filmmaker Ava Durnay also criticized the Academy in a Twitter post stating that:

“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?”

Genevieve stated in her twitter post that:

 “The 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 One Nigeria. 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”. She said

The movie was scheduled to be screened to voters for the category, formerly known as best foreign language film, on Wednesday.