The Academy Awards has disqualified Nigeria’s “Lionheart” from the Oscar race for the Best International Feature Film category. It was the first film ever submitted to the Oscars by Nigeria.
“Lionheart,”which stars Genevieve Nnaji who doubles as director, 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.”
Gnevieve Nnaji who is director of the movie has reacted after the movie was disqualified from 2019 Oscar Academy awards.
She wrote on Twitter:
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— Genevieve Nnaji MFR (@GenevieveNnaji1) November 4, 2019
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. @TheAcademy https://t.co/LMfWDDNV3e
— Genevieve Nnaji MFR (@GenevieveNnaji1) November 4, 2019
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