The Nigeria Oscar Selection Committee (NOSC) has reacted to the disqualification of LionHeart as the country’s submission for Oscar 2020. 

LIB reported earlier that the movie Genevieve Nnaji made her directorial debut in, was disqualified as Nigeria’s submission for the ‘International Feature Film’ category of the Oscars for having too much English dialogue. 

Reacting to the development, Chineze Anyaene who headed the committee that made the submission said it shouldbe an eye-opener for filmmakers in the Nollywood industry.

Though she admitted that the industry is “often faced with producing films with a wide reach”, she also disclosed that they are working to create workshops and other training sessions to instill robust awareness on the guidelines for an ‘International Feature Film’ entry.

She said “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 which are predominantly foreign language – non-English recording dialogue,” Anyaene said.

“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 the 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 a step forward into growing a better industry.”