Nigerian Oscar Submission Lionheart Disqualified for Award Contention

So here’s another frustrating story of the Oscars. Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, which was the submitted entry for Nigeria, has now been disqualified from contention for having too much English. Somewhere around ten percent of the film is in the Igbo language, while the rest of the run time uses English. Lionheart was set to be Nigeria’s first Oscar entry, but it was apparently not vetted by the time the officially listing was revealed.

Selma director Ava DuVernay had this to say:

What’s interesting is that this is the first year in which the Academy has named the category International Feature Film from the previously-titled Foreign-Language Film. Even though the title was changed, it would appear the eligibility did not. We won’t hear of the official longlist until December 16, but I would assume this ruling won’t change at that time.

I personally think that it’s bullshit, especially after the title change, to disqualify this film. I’m not sure of all the rules that a film needs to have to qualify for International Feature Film, but changing the title seems to indicate that Foreign-Language is not an issue. This is film, and you are punishing them for using English when Nigeria has some English in with the many other languages around.

So what do you think? Should Lionheart be allowed to compete for Best International Feature Film? Let me know/Drop a comment below!

-Kyle A. Goethe