By Daniel Itai.
(News of The South) – Lionheart, a Nigerian movie which premiered in 2019 has been removed from the Academy Awards “Oscars” of best international film nomination list for lacking authenticity.
The Academy, disqualified the Nigerian movie due to the Oscar rule that best international film entries must boast a predominantly non-English dialogue track.
The Academy’s committee co-chairperson Larry Karaszewski said, “if you are submitting for something as important as an Academy Award, I would think you should look at the rules.
We are not looking to make things ineligible I don’t think this film was disqualified as much as it was ineligible. It’s not a dismissal. It’s not like we didn’t like the movie, but it would be unfair to other films to not adhere to the rules.
There are no bad intentions on either side. We would love a film from this country and for it to be part of the process.”
Lionheart has only 11 minutes of one of the native languages of Nigeria, Igbo. Despite that, they are more than 500 languages in Nigeria and pigeon English is predominantly the medium of communication which was also used in much of the movie.
Lionheart’s director and protagonist Genevieve Nnaji, was aggrieved by the stance that was taken by the Oscar nominating body.
“This movie represents the way we speak as Nigerians. This includes English which acts as a bridge between the over 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,” said Genevieve.
The last film to be disqualified for the same reason, was the Israeli film, The Band’s Visit in 2007. Lionheart is currently streaming on Netflix.
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