I have ignored posting on the nominees for the 97th Academy Awards, because I was disappointed that Mati Diop's critically acclaimed multiple award winning documentary film, "Dahomey" was not included among the nominees after it was shortlisted for the Best Documentary Feature category and the Best International Feature Film category.
This is the second time that her award winning film has not made the nominees after winning a highly coveted award at one of the Big Five international film festivals in the world.
She won the Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival for her feature film debut, "Atlantics" and was the entry of Senegal for the Best International Feature Film category of the 2019 Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. And her second feature film, "Dahomey" that won the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival and the entry of Senegal for the Best International Feature Film category was not nominated.
The most likely predicted winner is of course, Jacques Audiard's controversial musical romantic crime drama, "Emilia Pérez" with the record of 13 nominations, the highest number for the 97th Academy Awards to be held on March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. But I doubt if the film can win up to five Oscars.
I don't know how the nominees are chosen, because the judges and specific criteria are not known to the public, except the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) whose membership of the academy is based more on being recommended than on the merit of professional criteria. So, membership can be influenced by the familiarity with influential members of AMPAS.
The content and context of "Dahomey" as an anticolonial historical film on repatriation have a more universal theme than a romantic crime thriller of sexual orientation and personal insecurities and sentiments.
It will be better and more meritorious if the winners of the highly esteemed critically juried Palme 'Or and Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival; Golden Bear of the Berlin International Film Festival or Berlinale; Golden Lion of Venice Film Festival; People's Choice Award and the FIPRESCI Prize, or International Film Critics Awardt at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic, Directing Award Dramatic, Grand Jury Prize Documentary and Directing Award Documentary at Sundance Film Festival qualify for the nominations for the annual Academy Awards.
I agree with the following statement by Tim Dirks, editor of AMC's Filmsite, has written of the Academy Awards:
Unfortunately, the critical worth, artistic vision, cultural influence and innovative qualities of many films are not given the same voting weight. Especially since the 1980s, moneymaking "formula-made" blockbusters with glossy production values have often been crowd-pleasing titans (and Best Picture winners), but they haven't necessarily been great films with depth or critical acclaim by any measure"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Awards
-;By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Founder, Publisher and Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.
