The Road Map for the Nominations for the Annual Academy Awards for Nigerian Filmmakers

The Road Map for the Nominations for the Annual Academy Awards for Nigerian Filmmakers

There is a Road Map for the Nominations for the annual Academy Awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and the route is common knowledge to those who truly know the criteria for filmmaking of international standards in the quality of the content and context of filmmaking and the benchmarks of the most coveted international awards and prizes for filmmaking.

Making the nominations for the almighty Oscars from the long list to the short list is beyond the mere selections of the official entries for different countries in the competition for the Best International Feature Film Category of the Academy Awards which is the most competitive, because of the challenges of competing with the best filmmakers from other countries you may not know their works.

In my own opinion, any film that has not made the Official Selections for the annual Cannes Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival should not be the official selection of Nigeria for the Best International Feature Film Category of the Academy Awards. Because in the history of the Oscars,most of the nominees and winners were in the Official Selections of the most highly esteemed and highest ranking international film festivals as I have listed them above. And only the majority of them that won the Palme d'Or of the Cannes Film Festival, Golden Lion and Silver Lion of the Venice International Film Festival, Audience Award of the Toronto International Film Festival, Golden or Silver Bear of the Berlin International Film Festival and Best Feature Film at the Sundance Film Festival made the nominees and winners of the Oscars. 

Any Nigerian filmmaker who cannot or has not competed for the best international awards in the global film industry should not be considered for the representation of the Official Selection of the entry for the Best International Feature Film Category of the Oscars.

Only the best should represent Nigeria, because only the best is good enough for us.

Nigerian filmmakers have not even won the prizes for the Best Feature Film at the annual Durban International Film Festival of South Africa, the highest ranking international film festival in Africa and only one Nigerian filmmaker, Newton Aduaka has won the Étalon d'or de Yennenga" (Golden Stallion of Yennenga) at the Ouagadougou Panafrican Film and Television Festival (FESPACO) for his critically acclaimed film, "Ezra" in 2007. 

The problem of Nigerian filmmakers is the fact that they don't like being told the truth and when you tell them the truth, they become upset and even stop communicating with you in their unprofessional and unintellectual attitudes. But the fact is majority of them don't even know that filmmaking is not for those who are intellectually challenged, because the Art of Filmmaking is beyond the mere craft of shooting a movie.

Majority of the filmmakers in Nigeria don't know what is Art Direction and many of them have not studied Production Design.

Many of them don't know what is the aspect ratio of a movie for the cinema and most of them don't know what is a shooting ratio.

They don't even know how to use lighting for storytelling; costume for storytelling; the nuances of

characterisation and music for storytelling in filmmaking.

I have advised the film schools in Nigeria to use nominees and winners of the Oscars for case studies in filmmaking to teach their students on how and why the nominees and winners got the nominations and won the Oscars.

The  Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) for the Oscars  should know that to make the nominations for the Oscars is more than the mere selection of the official entry.

Is there a budget for the promotion of the selected film?

Promotion for reviews in the highly esteemed and rated international news media such as the New York Times, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline Hollywood, Indiewire, Screen International, CNN, BBC and Underurrents of the  International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI)

Read How Much Does It Cost To Win An Oscar? - BBC News

Just two of the most high-profile attempts to influence what must be the most select group of voters on the planet, the 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Estimates for the total amount Hollywood spends on Oscar campaigns range from $100m right up to $500m in a single year.23 Feb 2016

https://www.bbc.com › news › ent...

How much does it cost to win an Oscar? - BBC News

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35613630

By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

The Publisher/Editor,

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,

The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

Founder/CEO,

International Digital Post Network Limited,

Screen Outdoor Open Air Cinema (SOOAC),

Affiliate Partner, Cinewav of Singapore

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,
Nigeria Daily
Nigerians Report Online on Blogger and Facebook
New Nigeria on Pinterest
Vuulr Program Partner,
Cinewav affiliate partner

#Oscars
#Academyawards
#BestInternationalFeatureFilm
#OfficialSelections
#nominations
#nominees
#films
#committee
#Nollywood

Why Bollywood and Nollywood Have Not Won the Oscar for the Best International Feature Film

Why #Bollywood and #Nollywood Have Not Won the #Oscar for the Best International Feature Film

#Oscars 
 #academyawards
#movies

In nearly 75 years, the Oscar for best international film has only gone to an African production three times and a Bollywood production has never won. Europe dominates the category. Why?

Bollywood also snubbed by Hollywood

Half of the Asian-winning films are Japanese productions. Despite the size of Bollywood's film industry, India has never won the best international film award.

Another reason is the lack of financial means to promote Indian films to the Academy, says Namrata Joshi, an Indian film critic and author who has served on international film festivals juries in Toronto, Moscow and Cluj.

Even though Nigeria's internationally renowned Nollywood industry produces around 2,500 films a year, it hasn't won a single foreign film Academy Award.

Nollywood productions often do not meet the technical requirements of a cinema film since the focus is on home television. According to Ayorinde, streaming services like Netflix could change the situation significantly. Netflix is raising the bar, he says, by requiring cinematic standards even for films made for home viewing.

Read the report on 

https://amp.dw.com/en/oscars-where-are-the-african-films/a-61187154

Highly recommended: Nigerians Report Online: Why Nollywood Filmmakers Have Failed To Qualify for the Oscars and Cannes

"Héliopolis" is a Masterpiece in Motion Picture

In 1970, Algeria became the first country in the Arab world to win an #Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category with the Algerian-French production “Z” directed by Costa Gavras.

“Héliopolis", Algeria's entry for the Best International Feature Film category of the 94th Annual Academy Awards is a very powerful historical drama about
the Algerian revolution, directed by Djaafar Gacem.

Synopsis:

In Guelma, Victory in Europe Day is a life-altering event for one Algerian family: French troops are about to commit a massacre against Algerian civilians.

In Guelma, which was once called Heliopolis in ancient times, the daily life of an Algerian family takes its usual course. But on May 8, 1945, the day the end of World War II was announced, demonstrations by the Algerian people against the French colonial power and for the country’s independence took place, which were bloodily suppressed by the French army and French settler militias. The event went down in history as the Sétif and Guelma massacre. 

"Héliopolis" is a masterpiece in motion picture and will end up a classic in the history of filmmaking in Algeria and the rest of the Arab world.

French is the best language of motion picture. 

I predict "Héliopolis" making it to the final nominees for the Best International Feature Film, Best Picture and the Best Original Screenplay.. But I don't know if it can win the second Oscar for Algeria, because of the outstanding films by the other countries competing for the Best International Feature Film award.

###

Heliopolis is also the title of an Egyptian film produced in 2009 directed by Ahmad Abdalla.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Publisher/Editor, 

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series
@247 NIGERIA @247nigrria on Twitter