On Monday, Oscar Academy dropped Lionheart, “for having too much dialogue in English”, which violates its rule that requires entries in the international category to have “a predominantly non-English dialogue track.”
The Director, Genevieve Nnaji, who also stars in the film, protested against the disqualification on Twitter saying the film “represents the way we speak as Nigerians.”
Lionheart, which is Nigeria’s first-ever submission to the Oscar, is largely in English, with an 11-minute section in the Igbo language.
It was one of the unprecedented 29 films out of 93 originally submitted this year that were directed by women.
The film, which has earned strong reviews and is currently streaming on Netflix, had been scheduled to screen for Academy voters in the international category on Wednesday.
She added that; “This includes English which acts as a bridge between the 500+ languages spoken in our country. We did not choose who colonised us. As ever, this film and many like it, is proudly Nigerian.”
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