Nigeria’s Oscar Submission Disqualified For English Dialogue

Genevieve Nnaji, Lionheart’s director and star, appears in another Nigerian film, Weekend Getaway. (Wikimedia Commons)

Nigeria’s first Oscar submission for best international feature film, Lionheart, was disqualified from consideration on November 4. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this elimination via an email to its voters and claimed that the film’s use of primarily English dialogue makes it ineligible for the category.

According to the rules of the Academy, films under consideration in the international category must be produced outside of the United States and have "a predominantly non-English dialogue track." Lionheart, a 95-minute film, contains only 11 minutes in the native Igbo dialect, with the rest of the film in English. However, as many critics of this decision were quick to point out, English is the national language of Nigeria.

 The film’s director and star Genevieve Nnaji announced her disappointment in a series of tweets, saying that the film “represents the way we speak as Nigerians.” Nnaji highlighted the role that the English language plays in Nigerian culture as it “acts as a bridge between the 500+ languages” in the country.

 Nnaji also pointed to the impact of colonization in Nigeria. She said that the prevalent use of English in Nigeria is “no different to how French connects communities in former French colonies.”

 Nnaji was not alone in her disapproval and received massive online support, including a tweet from award-winning director Ava Duvernay. Duvernay questioned the validity of the Academy’s choice, asking, “Are you barring this country from ever competing for an Oscar in its official language?”

Nnaji also received backing from journalist Afua Hirsch, who again referred to Nigeria’s colonial past in her complaint. In her tweet, Hirsch spoke out against the disqualification and asked of the Academy, “So now we are getting penalised for having been colonised by Britain?”

Lionheart proved to be a trailblazing film for Nigeria’s film industry, affectionately known as “Nollywood,” before its submission for Oscar consideration. In 2018, the film became the first original Nigerian movie on Netflix. Lionheart also marked Nnaji’s directorial debut.

 Despite its disqualification, Lionheart’s submission still represents a major turning point for Nollywood, the second most prolific movie industry in the world. For many in the western world, Lionheart serves as an introduction to the potential of Nigerian filmmaking and opens Nollywood to a global audience.