Twitter reacts as Oscar disqualifies Genevieve Nnaji's movie 'Lionheart'

 

When the critically acclaimed movie 'Lionheart' was selected for nomination by the Oscar, the buzz around the country was massive but a few hours ago, the news that movie was disqualified broke the internet.

On Monday, November 4, 2019, the news broke that 'Lionheart' had been rejected by the Oscars. The major reason being that it was submitted in the wrong category. Trust Nigerians, as they took to Twitter to express their displeasure over what would have been Nigeria's bright up at clinching an Oscar award.

Genevieve Nnaji's 'Lionheart' was released in 2018 and Nigerians welcomed it with opened arms. The reception the movie got showed that the actress turned movie director did something right. 

From being the first Nigerian movie on Netflix to that famous interview with Richard Quest on 'Quest Means Business' on CNN, it was obvious Genevieve wasn't joking.

@TheAcademy Disqualifying Lion Heart for the use of English as a language makes no sense. Nigeria has no particular indigenous language. Our lingua franca is English. You ought to know this. It's been our means of communication from inception. This reason is baseless.#Lionheart pic.twitter.com/fSVdGfh9EJ

— Ngozichukwuka (@VivienNgozika) November 5, 2019

Even some Nigerians opposed the movie lionheart when it was sent to the oscars. I guess y’all are happy now? 😏

— Mazi Olisaemeka C. ™ (@OlisaOsega) November 5, 2019

I think this is enough reason why Lionheart was disqualified from the Oscars. Stop blaming it on colonialism. pic.twitter.com/ZwPVIIg8RE

— Richard Omo Ibo (@MeetTheRichard) November 5, 2019

Lionheart was today disqualified from the Oscar’s Best Intl Film.. because.. it is mostly in English.

Nigeria was colonised by the Brits.
English is an official language in the Country.

You really can’t win with this lot.
Quite literally cannot win. https://t.co/Ie052bUXF4

— Samira Sawlani (@samirasawlani) November 5, 2019

They colonized our countries, forced us to learn their language, and now we’re getting penalized for using the same language. Make it make sense...English is Nigeria’s official language, this is absolute trash. @TheAcademy DO BETTER! #lionheart https://t.co/HMIsSsC92d

— Queen 🇨🇲🇳🇬🇺🇸 (@queenetonde) November 5, 2019

You are free to support @TheAcademy 's decision on #LionHeart .
But the moment you add any phrase like "It's not like it stood any chance of winning", that's a bitter leaf part of your life manifesting to the fore.

In the preffered language of the academy - e wù animanu!

— Mo! (@mobiuwakwe) November 5, 2019

The Academy has disqualified “Lionheart” from the Oscars for Best International Feature Film because it’s mostly in English, which violates the rules that entries in the category must have predominantly non-English dialogue.

Still a very good movie but “the rules are the rules”.

— 👑 DaddyMo 👑 (@therealdaddymo1) November 5, 2019

Wow, considering literally none of the Oscar voters give a flying fuck about the international films category and just go with whatever they think sounds coolest or can vaguely understand some of what they’re saying minutes you’d think they’d be all over Nigeria’s #lionheart pic.twitter.com/BqL9omHpfE

— Peyton (@YungNoodl3) November 5, 2019