There will be no film to represent Nigeria when the 95th Academy Awards holds in Los Angeles, USA on March 12, 2023.
The reality has finally dawned on Nollywood as members of the Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee (NOSC) ‘voted’ last night to uphold their decision of September 3, 2022 not to submit any film for consideration towards possible nomination in the Best International Feature Film category, (formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film).
By this decision, none of the three films in contention – Anikulapo by Kunle Afolayan; Agesinkole (King of Thieves) by Adebayo Tijani and Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman by the late Biyi Bandele – will have the desired opportunity to take a shot at the coveted Oscar awards.
Although the Committee had on September 3rd, 2022 elected not to submit any of the three films, the Academy had intervened by giving a one-week extention for the committee to reconvene, revote and submit a fresh decision before 5pm pacific time today Friday October 21.
The Academy’s intervention had come after complaints by several members of the committee who faulted the no-submition decision.
The Association of Movie Producers of Nigeria (AMP) had also sent a strongly-worded letter to the Academy saying that it could not sit back and watch “as its members are wrongly portrayed as being unqualified to be represented on the biggest global stage.”
While the Academy acceded to AMP’s request that Nigeria be granted “an extension on the submission deadline to enable a newly reconstituted Committee sit and consider all eligible submissions and come to a fair conclusion,” last night’s development may have finally nailed the hopes for Nigeria.
TCN was reliably informed that all 15 members of the committee duly turned up for the virtual meeting at 9pm Nigerian time last night. But instead of members to be asked to vote for any of the three films in contention, the sole method adopted by the Chairperson of the committee, Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi, was said to be a yes or no vote on the need “to uphold the integrity of NOSC’s rules.”
Many members interpreted this development that they were merely required to vote to retain the previous decision of the committee or signify their dissention. “There was no allowance to vote for any of the films and because the Chairperson called the meeting, she could mute and unmute members at will,” a reliable insider informed TCN.
It was gathered that at the end of the 45-minute meeting, nine members voted to “maintain the integrity of the award rules”, which invariably implied that selecting any of the films would mean that the committee was wrong abinitio, a decision, they reckoned, would tarnish their image.
But our reporter reliably learnt that the voting came with intense drama. Two members that had previously voted for “not eligible” in September are said to have changed their minds with a view to voting for a film at yesterday’s meeting. But that did not deplete the ‘not eligible’ camp as two other members who had previously voted for Anikulapo and King Of Thieves allegedly shifted their votes to the ‘not eligible/maintain NOSC’s integrity’ camp.
What more? A member who had previously voted for Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman was also said to have joined the ‘not eligible/integrity’ camp.
The outcome, which TCN gathered will be the basis upon which the Academy would be told Nigeria still has no entry this year, stood at nine votes to maintain status quo as against six that wanted a revote.
However, a gale of resignations has followed the decision of the committee. Filmmaker Kenneth Gyan took to twitter this morning to announce he has quit the controversial committee.
In a terse message on his verified twitter handle, he wrote: ” NOSC? I’m out. It was quite the ride. Damn!”
It was gathered that both Mrs Ego Boyo and Dr. Shaibu Husseini who had previously resigned but returned only for the revote as directed by the Academy are now fully out of the committee. Similarly, frontline filmmaker and a foundation member of the committee, Mildred Okwo, who had last month announced her intention to disengage from the committee after this year has now formally taken her exit.
There are hush tones to the effect that the Deputy Chairman of the committee, Mahmood Ali-Balogun, may be reconsidering his membership too following a perceived cold war between him and Anyaene-Abonyi.
It was gathered that in order to give a concise account of what transpired at yesterday’s meeting to the Academy, several members of the committee surreptitiously recorded the proceedings and may forward same to the Academy or possibly leak it to the public.
This is not the first time that the committee would lose members. Filmmaker and owner of Teen Africa TV, Charles Novia and Founder of Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), Chioma Ude, resigned their membership in 2020, while London-based film entrepreneur, Akin Salami, also left the committee before this year’s controversies.
In its nine years as the body responsible for selecting films to represent Nigeria at the Oscars, the NOSC has only succeeded in picking a film in 2020 when it chose The Milkmaid by Desmond Ovbiagele to represent Nigeria.
It’s entry in 2019, Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, was disqualified by the Academy for not meeting the language requirements.
The committee found no suitable film in 2021 just like it did in its first five years between 2013 and 2018.
Its decision to overlook the three films in contention this year has, however, attracted widespread condemnation given the popularity and the apparent high production values of the three films in contention.
While Anikulapo has risen to be Netflix’s No 1 film globally in barely three weeks, Elesin Oba had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and will make its Netflix debut next month while King of Thieves was a box-office hit in Nigerian cinemas and has since been acquired by Amazon Prime.
