As the reconstituted Nigerian Oscar Selection Committee (NOSC) gets ready to call for entries for the 96th Academy Awards slated for March 10, 2024, TCN can authoritatively reveal the reason behind the exit of the founder and erstwhile Chairperson, Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi.
The NOSC is the official committee saddled with the responsibility of sourcing, assessing and selecting the Nigerian movie that will compete for shortlisting and nomination at the Best International Feature Film category of the Oscar Awards.
Since it secured approval in 2013, NOSC had only managed to recommend two Nigerian films.
First was in 2019 when it selected Genevieve Nnaji’s directorial debut, LionHeart, which got disqualified for not meeting the indigenous language requirement of the award; and Desmond Ovbiageli’s The Milk Maid in 2020.
But this week’s resignation of Anyaene-Abonyi as the chairperson of the committee and the subsequent announcement of actress and director, Stephanie Okereke-Linus, as her successor has continued to receive mixed reactions within the cinena industry.
While Anyaene-Abonyi attributed the reason for her exit to the need to move on to other opportunities after leading the committee for two terms and securing the Academy’s approval for another term of five years, TCN was reliably informed that the director of Ije bowed to pressure from within and outside the committee to move on after the contentious events of 2022 when the NOSC failed to recommend a Nigerian film for this year’s Oscars.
The committee’s tumultuous and controversial decision last year to recommend none of the three films shortlisted led to widespread condemnation and eventual resignation of at least six members of the committee, who frowned at Anyaene-Abonyi’s style of leadership and the seeming effort to frustrate any of the three films – Elesin Oba, Anikukapo and Agesinkole – from being selected.
TCN gathered that the Acadeny Awards handlers in Los Angeles were put under immense pressure by stakeholders from Nollywood to dissolve the NOSC and cause a fresh team that will be less-controversial and more industry representative to be formed.
It was learnt that several petitions were allegedly written from various stakeholders to the Academy to highlight why the industry had lost faith in the Nigerian committee as it was presently constituted.
Two separate representatives of the Academy who sampled opinions of stakeholders between November 2022 and March 2023 when they were in Nigeria were also believed to have gone away with the impression that a new order was necessary as a panacea to rekindling hope of local filmmakers in the NOSC.
However, it was learnt that Anyaene-Abonyi made spirited efforts to convince the Academy of the need for her to continue to lead the committee since those she allegedly regarded as “trouble makers” had voluntarily resigned their membership.
In the end, TCN learnt that a middle ground was reached with the Academy’s unit in charge of Africa for the NOSC to get approval for another five years with the understanding that Anyaene-Abonyi will excuse herself, but was free to suggest a successor and expand the membership to include government functionaries.
This, it was reliably learnt, was what led to the inclusion of new members like the Managing Director of the Nigerian Film Corporation, Dr. Chidia Maduekwe; President of the Directors Guild of Nigeria, Dr. Victor Okhai; former DGN President, Mr. Andy Amenechi; filmmaker, Dimeji Ajibola; Writer and Director, Jude Idada and one Ngozi Okafor.
They are meant to replace those who left in the heat of last year’s controversy.
TCN gathered that the committee decided that those who resigned should not be allowed back into the fold.
They include the former Deputy Chairman of the committee, Mahmood Ali-Balogun; MD of FilmHouse Cinemas, Moses Babatope; Film scholar and journalist, Dr. Shaibu Husseini; as well as filmmakers Keneth Gyan, Mildred Okwo and Ego Boyo.
TCN was also informed that the new members were not part of the process that led to the selection of Okereke-Linus as the new Chairperson of the committee.
The popular actress and director had joined the committee in June 2022, at the same time with Gyan, John Njama and Meg Otanwa, an actress and polyglot.
It was gathered that while some members had their eyes on actress Omotola Jalade-Ekehinde, Yibo Koko or Izu Ojukwu to step in as the new Chairman, it became apparent that “the founding interest” in the committee preferred Okereke-Linus.
Since there was no actual voting to select the new chairperson and it was Anyaene-Abonyi who convened the meeting in which her successor would be chosen, “it was obvious where the pendulum would swing,” a source told TCN, adding that “it was not an unpopular choice though, as almost all the others who were expected to put their hats in the ring ended up endorsing Okereke-Linus.”
It was learnt that the new chairman will continue to run the affairs of the committee from the Abuja office secured by Anyaene-Abonyi and with “personal resources” like she did.
