Oscars: Members resign as NOSC fails to revote

The Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee (NOSC) have decided to hold on to their previous decision not to submit any film for consideration towards possible nomination in the Best International Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards scheduled for March 2023.

This is coming after the Academy requested for a revote from the committee. The Academy’s request for a revote had come after complaints by several members of the committee who faulted the no-submition decision.

Before this, the Association of Movie Producers of Nigeria (AMP) had also sent a strongly-worded letter to the Academy saying that it could not sit back and watch “as its members are wrongly portrayed as being unqualified to be represented on the biggest global stage.”

As a result of their decision, none of the three films up for consideration, Kunle Afolayan’s Anikulapo; Adebayo Tijani’s Agesinkole (King of Thieves) and the late Biyi Bandele’s Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman will get the opportunity to win an Oscar award.

According to reports, all 15 members of the committee duly attended the virtual meeting at 9pm on October 21.

However, they weren’t asked to vote for any of the three films in contention. Instead the Chairperson of the committee, Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi, did a yes or no vote on the need “to uphold the integrity of NOSC’s rules.”

Many members interpreted this development that they were merely required to vote to retain the previous decision of the committee or signify their dissention.

A source stated, “There was no allowance to vote for any of the films and because the Chairperson called the meeting, she could mute and unmute members at will.”

By the time the meeting ended, nine members voted to “maintain the integrity of the award rules”, which invariably implied that selecting any of the films would mean that the committee was wrong abinitio, a decision, they reckoned, would tarnish their image.

Thereafter, members started resigning from the
committee.

Filmmaker Kenneth Gyan announced his resignation from the committee on Twitter. He wrote, ” NOSC? I’m out. It was quite the ride. Damn!”

Mrs Ego Boyo and Dr. Shaibu Husseini who had previously resigned but returned only for the revote as directed by the Academy are also fully out of the committee now.

Filmmaker, Mildred Okwo, who had last month announced her intention to resign from the committee after this year has now formally taken her exit.

In its nine years as the body responsible for selecting films to represent Nigeria at the Oscars, the NOSC has only succeeded in picking a film in 2020 when it chose The Milkmaid by Desmond Ovbiagele to represent Nigeria.

It’s entry in 2019, Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, was disqualified by the Academy for not meeting the language requirements.

The committee’s decision to not submit any films for the next Oscars has gotten many criticism, as many believe the movies in consideration are deserving of the chance to win the highly coveted award.