The Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) has added four new members to its panel of jurors, increasing the voting members to 15.
This follows its recent call on Nigerian producers to enter their films for the Best International Feature Film (formerly Best Foreign Language Film) category in the 2023 edition of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences, otherwise known as the Oscars.
Among the newly appointed members are notable advocacy filmmaker, actress and former beauty queen, Stephanie Linus (‘Through the Glass’, ‘Dry’); award-winning filmmaker, Keneth Gyang (‘Oloture’, ‘Confusion Na Wa’); Actor/Director John Njamah (‘Fuji House of Commotion’, ‘Tinsel’); and Actress/Polyglot, Meg Otanwa (‘October 1’, ‘Hush’).
In 2021, actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, a voting member of the Academy since 2018 and Izu Ojukwu, scriptwriter, cinematographer and director of ‘Amina’, ‘76’, and ‘White Waters’ joined the NOSC as voting members.
According to the NOSC, the growing list of members is to bring people of diverse creative portfolios into the dynamics of selecting the very best from Nigeria, for the highly competitive international awards scheme like the Oscars.
The NOSC is headed by filmmaker and entrepreneur, Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi. Other members include Chairman of Audio-Visual Rights Society (AVRS) of Nigeria, Mahmood Ali-Balogun; Filmmaker/Talent Manager, Mildred Okwo; actress and filmmaker, Ego Boyo; Director and Cinematographer, Adetokunbo ‘DJ Tee’ Odubawo; Theater Practitioner and Rivers State Tourism DG, Yibo Koko; Managing Director of FilmOne Entertainment, Moses Babatope; Academic/Culture Journalist, Shaibu Husseini and CEO of Legend Box Office, Bruce Ayonote.
The window for the submission of films for the 2023 Oscars is expected to close on August 31, 2022.
The Beat International Foreign Film award is presented annually by the Academy to a feature-length film produced outside the United States and which must contains 50 per cent or more of non-English dialogue.