Lionheart, a film directed by talented nollywood actress Genevieve Nnaji has been disqualified by the Academy from the 2020 Oscars race.
Lionheart was selected by the Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee (NOSC) in October as Nigeria’s submission to the Best International Feature Film Category of the 2020 Oscars making it the first film ever submitted to the Oscars by Nigeria.
On Monday, November 4, 2019, the Academy announced the disqualification of Lionheart to voters in the category in an email.
Read Also:
The Academy disqualified the film because most of the film’s dialogue is in English and not in a native dialect. The movie was partially done in the Igbo dialect but this was not enough to save the film from disqualification by the Academy.
Genevieve Nnaji reacted in a series of tweets. She said that the movie represents the way we speak as Nigerians, she also said the English language acts as a bridge between the 500+ languages spoken in Nigeria as it is our official language and thus, the movie should not have been disqualified.
Lionheart is said to be the first Nigerian film to be acquired by Netflix.
(Source: Pulse Nigeria)
