Oscars: Nigeria’s entry, The Milkmaid, crosses eligibility hurdle

NIGERIA finally has a seat at the Oscars table as its entry for this year’s edition, ‘The Milkmaid’ has been selected for consideration in the International Feature Film category.

The movie written, produced and directed by Desmond Ovbiagele, is among the 93 entries’ eligible for consideration’ for the 93rd Academy Awards (Oscars) happening on Sunday, April 25, 2021.

With ‘The Milkmaid’s’ selection, Nigeria is finally eligible for Oscar consideration after 2019’s ‘Lion Heart’ fiasco.

‘Lion Heart’, Nigeria’s first-ever Oscar submission for Best International Feature Film was disqualified by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for not having “a predominantly non-English dialogue track”, a crucial eligibility requirement.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes) produced outside the United States with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track.

However, the 95-minute’ Lion Heart’ was mainly in English, with an 11-minute section in the Igbo language.

Though ‘The Milkmaid’ still has some hurdles to cross, its consideration is a milestone achievement for Nigeria, renowned for its prominent and dynamic Nollywood.

The shortlist of 15 films that would emerge from the preliminary round of voting by Academy members from all branches would emerge on Tuesday, February 9. Nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, March 15, 2021.

Apart from ‘The Milkmaid’, movies from 10 other African countries were also considered eligible. They are Lesotho’s ‘This Is Not A Burial, It’s a Resurrection’ Cote’d’Voire’s ‘Night of the Kings’, Kenya’s ‘The Letter’ and Egypt’s ‘When we’re Born’. The others are ‘The Fisherman’s Diary’ (Cameroon), ‘The Unknown Saint’ (Morocco), ‘Toorbos’ (South Africa) and ‘You Will Die at Twenty’ (Sudan). The last two are “The Man Who Sold His Skin” (Tunisia) and Senegal’s ‘Nafi’s Father’.

‘The Milkmaid’, won five categories at the 2020 AMAA Awards. Apart from emerging as the ‘Best Film’, it also took ‘Best Film in African Language’, ‘Best Nigerian Film’, ‘Actress in Supporting Role’ and ‘Best Make-Up’ gongs.

It’s a Hausa language-based thriller on insurgency, mainly as it affects women and children in Sub-Saharan Africa. It’s about a Fulani milkmaid who confronts extremists in a rural African community. ‘The Milkmaid’ features Maryam Booth, Ibrahim Jammal, AnthonietaKalunta, and Gambo Usman Kona.