Genevieve Nnaji's movie did not meet the Academy's rules for international feature film submissions.
Lionheart is Nigeria's first-ever submission to the Academy Awards. Nnaji stars alongside Peter Edochie and Nkem Owoh in the film, which she also co-wrote with her producing partner Chinny Onwugbenu. Lionheart premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired by Netflix for worldwide distribution.
According to the Academy's rules for the international feature film category, "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." Lionheart 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. The film is not excluded from entering other Oscar categories, including consideration for best picture.
The decision was criticized by Nnaji, who said on Twitter, "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." She added, "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."
DuVernay also slammed the decision in a tweet, saying "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?"
Franklin Leonard, founder of The Black List, added, "Colonialism really is a bitch."
Elsewhere on Twitter, the reaction from people inside and outside of Nigeria has been united by deriding the Academy's decision as well as pointing our the country's obvious historical colonial reasons for having English as a national language.
See reactions on twitter:
Lionheart is Nigeria's first-ever submission to the Academy Awards. Nnaji stars alongside Peter Edochie and Nkem Owoh in the film, which she also co-wrote with her producing partner Chinny Onwugbenu. Lionheart premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired by Netflix for worldwide distribution.
According to the Academy's rules for the international feature film category, "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." Lionheart 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. The film is not excluded from entering other Oscar categories, including consideration for best picture.
The decision was criticized by Nnaji, who said on Twitter, "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." She added, "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."
DuVernay also slammed the decision in a tweet, saying "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?"
Franklin Leonard, founder of The Black List, added, "Colonialism really is a bitch."
Elsewhere on Twitter, the reaction from people inside and outside of Nigeria has been united by deriding the Academy's decision as well as pointing our the country's obvious historical colonial reasons for having English as a national language.
See reactions on twitter:
So Oscar disqualified Genevieve’s LionHeart because it was filmed in English Language ?— Biyi The Plug 🔌 (@BiyiThePlug) November 5, 2019
Oya now let us submit ‘Alani Pamolekun’ that one has too much Yoruba language spoken in it.
🤡🤡 🤡
LionHeart’s disqualification from the Oscars is a very disgraceful one. And the reason they gave is a shallow one. “A Nigerian movie shouldn’t have so much English in it” but our official language in Nigeria is English language. What exactly does that mean?? BS!— Mazi Olisaemeka C. ™ (@OlisaOsega) November 5, 2019
Lionheart has been disqualified from the Oscar.— Mazi Efam™ #SantaInIbadan (@iefamharris) November 5, 2019
Reason: A Nigerian movie should not have so much English.
Mind you, we were colonized by this same English people, English is our official language.
This right here is BS! And it's discriminatory.
The reasons given for the #Oscars disqualification of LION HEART only exposes the degree of their ignorance of the World outside of theirs,and their discriminatory and contemptuous views about African history and our ways.— Senator Shehu Sani (@ShehuSani) November 5, 2019
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