Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in and we are excited about one particular regional entry.
This year the award has been renamed ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
This is a significant moment for the Oscars, with a country like Nigeria that boasts of one of the largest film industries in the world – Nollywood entering the international feature competition for the first time is a big deal.
The movie of choice for Nigeria’s first ever Oscar submission is the Genevieve Nnaji Netflix Original ‘Lionheart.’ The movie which will be pitted against other strong entries from varying regions will vie for the actual nomination over over 120 entries for that particular category.
It is the first Netflix Original title to come from Nigeria. The movie was put forth by the 12-person Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee, which was inaugurated in 2014 but unable to find a film meeting the selection criteria until now.”
Nollywood star Nnaji made her directorial debut with the film at Toronto 2018. She also stars as Adaeze, a woman in a male-dominated industry who steps up to run her father’s company when he falls sick and must work alongside her incompetent uncle.
Source: ScreenDaily
Photo credit: Netflix ( Lionheart)
