‘Lionheart’ Disqualification: Nigerian Committee Takes Responsibility For Mistake Of Submission

The Nigeria Oscar Selection Committee has admitted that the submission of Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart for Oscar consideration was a mistake.

The disclosure was made in a statement by the Chairman of the committee, Chineze Anyaene, who urged filmmakers to make non-English dialogue films as it is a key factor in representing the country at the prestigious award.

The budding Nigerian film industry is often faced with producing films with wide reach which often makes the recording dialogue predominantly English with non-English infusions in some cases. Going forward, the committee intends to submit films that are predominantly foreign language – non-English recording dialogue. We are therefore urging filmmakers to shoot with the intention of non-English recording dialogue as a key qualifying parameter to represent the country in the most prestigious award.

The committee is working tirelessly in organizing workshops, seminars and using other available media to create robust awareness on the guidelines and requirements for an International Feature Film Entry. Lionheart passed on other technical requirements from story, to sound and picture except for language as adjudged by the Academy screening matrix, which was a challenge for the committee at a time. This is an eye-opener and step forward into growing a better industry.

Chineze Anyaene – pulse.ng

With the released statement, the real reason behind the movie’s disqualification has come to light as the language was predominantly English (the category in which it was submitted requires movies to be made in a local dialect of the country).