People React As Genevieve’s Lionheart Movie Was Disqualified From Oscars For Being Too English
Earlier today, it was announced that ‘Lionheart’ submission has been disqualified from Oscars nomination because it doesn’t meet the criteria of the category it was submitted for.
According to the Academy (Oscars), The International category which Lionheart was submitted for doesn’t accept movies in English, the movie must be in an indigenous African language.
This announcement cause some outrage by Nigerians on Twitter as people emphasized that English is the official language of Nigeria.
Many are of the opinion that the disqualification is unfair and biased.
Also reacting to the news, Genevieve wrote;
“I am the director of Lionheart. This movie represents the way we speak as Nigerians. This includes English which acts as a bridge between the 500+ languages spoken in our country; thereby making us #OneNigeria.
“It’s no different to how French connects communities in former French colonies. We did not choose who colonized us. As ever, this film and many like it, is proudly Nigerian.”
See Others’ Reactions;
Award winner film director, Ava DuVernay tweeted:
To @TheAcademy, You disqualified Nigeria’s first-ever submission for Best International Feature because its in English. But English is the official language of Nigeria. Are you barring this country from ever competing for an Oscar in its official language? https://t.co/X3EGb01tPF
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) November 4, 2019
Lionheart has been disqualified from the Oscar.
Reason: A Nigerian movie should not have so much English.
Mind you, we were colonized by this same English people, English is our official language.
This right here is BS! And it's discriminatory.
— Mazi Efam™ #SantaInIbadan (@iefamharris) November 5, 2019
Lionheart was today disqualified from the Oscar’s Best Intl Film.. because.. it is mostly in English.
Nigeria was colonised by the Brits.
English is an official language in the Country.You really can’t win with this lot.
Quite literally cannot win. https://t.co/Ie052bUXF4— Samira Sawlani (@samirasawlani) November 5, 2019
I can only imagine how many more views Lionheart will have on Netflix by the end of today! Anyhow you look at it this is a win! Stay winning @GenevieveNnaji1
— Deyemi (@_deyemi) November 5, 2019
LionHeart’s disqualification from the Oscars is a very disgraceful one. And the reason they gave is a shallow one. “A Nigerian movie shouldn’t have so much English in it” but our official language in Nigeria is English language. What exactly does that mean?? BS!
— Mazi Olisaemeka C. ™ (@OlisaOsega) November 5, 2019
To think that some Nigerians actually complained that Lionheart had too much igbo! Only for the oscars to think it has too much English??
Total BS! Honestly I don’t even care for the oscars at this point! They might aswell change the name back to “Foreign language”
— Steven Chuks (@SteveChuks_) November 5, 2019
Something about this doesn't seem fair. The film was disqualified because it's mostly in English. Meanwhile, the official language of Nigeria is….English. https://t.co/oKOIQpBRRV
— Britni Danielle (@BritniDWrites) November 4, 2019
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