Nigeria’s first-ever entry for the Academy Awards has been disqualified for being largely English-speaking.
The Academy announced the disqualification of Lionheart to voters in the category via email on Monday.
“Lionheart,” directed by Genevieve Nnaji, is partially in the Igbo language of South-east Nigeria but it is mostly in English. This violates the Academy rule that entries in the International Feature Film category must have “a predominantly non-English dialogue track.”
TCN reported that the Netflix-distributed movie, was submitted for the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category by the National Oscars Selection Committee (NOSC) last October.
The disqualification brings the number of entries for the category, which until this edition of the awards was known as Best Foreign Language Film, from a record 93 entries to 92.
Afghanistan’s ‘Hava, Maryam and Ayesha’ was also deemed ineligible for the Academy Awards.
