The Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) has announced ‘The Milkmaid’ as the country’s official submission for the 93rd Academy Awards in the International Feature Film (IFF) category of the Oscars.
The NOSC said in an official statement on Tuesday that it received several entries, out of which six films – ‘Sanitation Day’, ‘Voiceless’, ‘Oloture’, ‘Ibi’ (The Birth), ‘The Milkmaid’ and ‘Eyimofe’ – sailed through the first vetting exercise.
According to the committee, ‘The Milkmaid’ scored overwhelming majority votes at the final stage.
The film was selected by the 12-man NOSC, having followed the prescribed procedures by the Academy, subject to further determination by the IFF Executive Committee.
‘The Milkmaid’ was voted by seven of nine voting-NOSC members. The committee stated that three members were considered ineligible to vote, due to their affiliation with some of the films in competition, in line with the Academy’s rules.
The Head of the NOSC, Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi, said in the statement that there was a significant improvement in the quality of films received this year.
“The Academy’s approved parameters had to be diligently followed to select the country’s entry without prejudice. And I must say that the Nigerian film industry is awakened to the internationally acceptable requirements for film production, though there would always be room for improvement in order to increase our competitive outlook every year,” she said.
The Milkmaid’s announcement as the country’s selection comes two days after the same film earned seven nominations for the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Nigerian Film.
The NOSC’s announcement has also put an end to rife speculations of intense lobby of committee members by interested parties over the three films that entered the last round of voting.
TCN reliably gathered that The Milkmaid, Oloture and Voiceless were the films in the last round of voting which took place more than one week ago.
While The Milkmaid and Voiceless are wholly in Hausa language, clearly meeting the original requirement of the Academy Awards for the Best International Film category, which stipulates that entries must be predominantly in foreign language, Oloture is largely in Pidgin English, but also scaled the language hurdle too since the Academy Awards has now officially recognised Pidgin English as a foreign language peculiar to West Africa.
Last year, Nigeria’s official submission, ‘Lionheart’, was disqualified for not meeting the foreign language dialogue criteria, raising questions as to whether or not the Nigerian pidgin could be considered a local language.
However, the rule has been reviewed, giving approval for dialogues in pidgin.
Written, produced and directed by Desmond Ovbiagele, ‘The Milkmaid’ is a Hausa language-driven thriller on insurgency, especially as it affects women and children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Inspired by the image on Nigeria’s 10 Naira note, the film tells the story of a Fulani milkmaid who confronts religious extremists in a rural African community, in a quest to locate her missing sister, and how efforts to recapture her disrupted past prove complicated.
The writer/director is a former banker and son of Helen Ovbiagele, a prolific author and former Woman Editor at Vanguard Newspapers. He shot The Milkmaid on location in Taraba State, North-East Nigeria, starring popular Northern Nigerian actress, Maryam Booth, alongside Ibrahim Jammal, Anthonieta Kalunta and Gambo Usman Kona among others.
The 93rd edition of the Academy Awards is scheduled to hold on April 25, 2021.
