Oscars Disqualify Nigerian Film ‘Lion Heart’ Over English Dialogue
The Oscars Award Academy has disqualified Nigeria’s ‘Lionheart’ from the Oscar race in the Best International Feature Film category.
News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Academy dropped the Genevieve Nnaji directorial debut, for having too much English dialogue.
The Academy’s criteria for best international feature film category states that it awards film’s made outside the United States with a predominantly non-English dialogue.
This drop by the Oscars has reduced the number of films competing for the award to 92 from what had been a record 93 entries.
The disqualification also drops the number of female directors in this year’s race to 28, which is still a category record.
NAN reports that it was the first film ever submitted to the Oscars by Nigeria.