The Academy Awards, Nollywood and the Submission of Nigeria's Entry for the Best International Feature Film

The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is not responsible for the selections of the members of the Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) for the International Feature Film (IFF) category of the annual Academy Awards (Oscars).

The brouhaha over the lack of honesty and transparency in the rejection of any of the two acclaimed Nigerian films as the country’s official submission for the IFF Award last year caused the resignation of Mildred Okwo and Shaibu Husseini from the selection committee and I don't know if they have returned. But there should be a defined criteria for the membership of the Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) based on international professional achievements and accomplishments in filmmaking and being on the jury of highly rated international film festivals and awards. So, some members of the NOSC are not qualified to be members of the committee. And I mean every word in my statement. 

I was dragged into the mess of the NOSC last year that caused the local and international embarrassment of Nollywood, because after my investigation I discovered that Nigeria should have submitted an entry for the International Feature Film (IFF) category of the last Oscars. But personal antagonisms and not professional criticisms caused the rejection of the two films from which one should have been submitted. 

The two major contenders for the submission as Nigeria's entry were "Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman" , Yoruba-language historical drama film directed by Biyi Bandele based on Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka's "Death and the King's Horseman", a stage play he wrote while in Cambridge and "Aníkúlápó", a Yoruba epic fantasy film by Kunle Afolayan. Both of them were good enough; therefore one of them should have been submitted for the International Feature Film (IFF) category of the annual Academy Awards (Oscars). But the antagonism between those who wanted "Aníkúlápó" and those who wanted "Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman" resulted in the rejection of the films. 

Selfish opportunism has done more harm than good to professionalism in Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

To me, any Nigerian film that fails to be accepted for the Official Selections of any of the following annual international film festivals: Sundance Film Festival; Berlin International Film Festival: Cannes Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) should not be in the consideration for the submission by the NOSC.

 - Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
The Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
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