Nigeria: Oscars 2023 - Again, Nigerian Films Fail Eligibility Criteria

‘The Milkmaid’ is Nigeria’s first submission to the 2021 Oscars for International Feature Film.

For the second year in a row, Nigeria does not submit a film to the International Feature Film (IFF) category. oscar.

This is because none of the submissions received by the Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) of the Nigerian Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) met the eligibility criteria.

NOSC chairman Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi made this clear in a statement on Monday.

Nigeria’s last submission was 2020’s “The Milkmaid.”

“Milkmaid”, Movies inspired by Boko Haramwas also Nigeria’s first submission in the International Feature Film category.

Nigeria has achieved the feat for the first time in the academy after the country’s submission was ratified by the IFF Executive Committee.

However, despite passing the eligibility rule test, the film produced by Desmond Ovbiagele lost out on the Oscar run as it failed to make the first shortlist in the International Feature Film category.

2021, NOSC announced the cancellation The country’s plans to participate in the 2022 Oscars cited the issue of film eligibility, which it received as a major concern.

In 2019, the Oscars disqualified Nigeria’s official submission, “Lionheart,” for failing to meet non-English dialogue standards.

This has led to controversy as to whether the Nigerian pidgin should not be considered a local language.

Oscar subsequently revisited the rules, approving the Hausa, Fulfulde, pidgin filmed in Arabic dialogue, and the “milkmaid” dialogue, although it was written with the first Academy rules in mind. So, nothing was left to chance.

Examination flow

Anyaene-Abonyi, who subsequently informed AMPAS of the development, regretted that the committee was unable to find a suitable film for the award.

As a result, she announced that she would not submit the film for the 2023 Oscars.

The committee received three epic films after soliciting submissions last August, but found none could advance to the next stage due to members’ voting patterns.

In a session that lasted two hours on September 3, 2023, NOSC recorded vote charts of 8, 5, 1, 1 from 15 members, led by “No Films Eligible”.

Anyaene-Abonyi said: “Nigerian cinema has undoubtedly improved a lot as there is an increased awareness of the requirements among filmmakers and may soon bring home the award in a row.”

However, she calls on filmmakers to “be more familiar with Oscar-nominated films in the IFF category in order to achieve the necessary international recognition and place our films at the acclaimed level of creative discourse. I begged you to do so.

The Academy awards an annual IFF Award to a feature film produced outside the United States that contains at least 50% non-English dialogue.

Hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the 95th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will honor films released in 2022 and will take place on March 12, 2023 at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California.