‘Lionheart’ Gets Disqualified From Oscar Nomination, Genevieve Nnaji Reacts

Those who were excited by the news of the first-ever submission for the nomination of a Nollywood movie at the Oscar Awards will now be disappointed as Lionheart has been disqualified and the director and lead actress, Genevieve Nnaji, has reacted to the disqualification.

American filmmaker, Ava DuVernay, called out the Academy for disqualifying Lionheart, asking if they are stopping Nigeria from being a part of the competition because the movie is in English, the country’s official language. The submission was for Best International Feature and DuVernay’s words could imply that films in that category are expected to be in the nation’s native language.

Director and actress, Genevieve Nnaji, responded to DuVernay’s statement and clarified that Lionheart proudly represents Nigeria. See her tweet below:

1/1 1/2 Thank you so much @ava❤️.
I am the director of Lionheart. 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. @TheAcademy https://t.co/LMfWDDNV3e

— Genevieve Nnaji MFR (@GenevieveNnaji1) November 4, 2019

Whatever reasons The Academy had for the disqualification, the action could be seen as a slight to the Nigerian movie industry which has been dishing out films that could compete with their Hollywood counterparts.

Lionheart is a great movie, whether it gets an Oscar or not and for those who haven’t seen it, do yourselves a favor and watch it.