Nigeria's Oscar race entry Lionheart disqualified by Academy over use of English

[just444]

Academy Rules Under Fire After Nigeria Disqualified from International Film Race https://t.co/MXlyI2Fldg pic.twitter.com/BnvlZdcS8u
- Anne Thompson (@akstanwyck) November 5, 2019

source 2

AMPAS requires movies to have a 'predominantly non-English dialogue track' to be eligible for the Best International Feature Film award

80% of the dialogue in

Comments

[glutenfreefool]

The colonists strike again.

Is being in a foreign/non-English language a requirement for the award? They know so so many countries have populations of people who speak English from a young age, right?

[katheli]

technically yes being in a foreign language is the only requirement for the award, it was for some dumb reason renamed from the Best Film in a Foreign Language to this mess, which doesn't even make sense cause "international" (English-speaking) films already compete for all the awards anyway.

[glutenfreefool]

Ahh, I see. Ty. Stupid Oscars. 😒

[smashmortion]

they renamed the category because Alfonso Cuaron lobbied for it and joked that he loved foreign movies like JAWS and THE GODFATHER when he won for ROMA

[chllschse]

The stupidity burns. It's like do Academy members not realize that English is spoken worldwide. There are almost 70 countries where English is the official language. Of course their cinema is going to be English. They are still foreign films.

[glutenfreefool]

It feels like a mix of ignorance and arrogance? I'm Nigerian. There are hundreds of languages spoken in the country, but English is kind of standard bc it was the English who came and colonized the country. If you're making a film in Nigeria and it's English it's going to have a broad audience and it's not like English isn't naturally spoken.

On top of that, a culture is more than it's language (it's worth mentioning English spoken in other countries is a different flavor? Slang and shit.) it's traditions and the environment and the people. So it's nonsense to me that it's less ~foreign if it's in a known language. And I mean, lbh white people will act like a (non white) foreigner is speaking a whole other language if their English has an accent. 🙄

[nene718]

and yet ppl will ask if i "speak nigerian"

[chllschse]

Exactly.