NOSC crisis: Must a country submit film every year, Anyaene asks Oscars

The Nigeria Official Selection Committee (NOSC) has now sought clarification on the extension of Nigeria’s submission window for the International Feature Film (IFF) category of the 2023 Oscars.

The NOSC ensures that the entry to represent Nigeria in the IFF meets all eligibility requirements to compete.

After making significant inroads in 2021 with ‘Milkmaid’ and being dropped from the first shortlist, Nigeria’s film industry didn’t come up with a movie to vie in the 94th edition as NOSC filed that none of its options were good enough.

In September, NOSC failed again to submit a film, a situation that filmmakers had attributed to the introduction of a “no film eligible” category in the framework on which the committee’s internal voting was based.

This move has since caused tension in the NOSC, culminating in the resignation of some committee members.

Some NOSC members displeased with the development wrote to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences AMPAS, the organisers of the Oscars, seeking its intervention to allow filmmakers to revote and submit an entry.

Shaibu Husseini, the journalist, and Mildred Okwo, the filmmaker, both of whom were members of the committee before the resignation, later revealed that the Academy had asked the NOSC to reconvene and review its decision.

AMPAS, it is understood, wrote to the NOSC in a letter dated October 14 and addressed to both Chineze Anayene-Abonyi and Mahmood Ali-Balogun, the selection committee’s chairperson and co-chairperson respectively.

In its intervention, it granted NOSC a one-week extension to “reconvene” towards reviewing its decision not to submit a film entry to represent Nigeria in the IFF. The extension, it is understood, is to expire on October 21.

On October 17, a committee insider confirmed to TheCable Lifestyle that Anayene had responded to AMPAS on October 16 seeking clarification on the latter’s calls for NOSC to reconvene on the matter.

In a letter, Anyaene put the question to the IFF office if it was mandatory that a country submit a film every year.

The chairperson said NOSC finds it “strange” that IFF would request a reconvening of the committee to redefine its position after AMPAS had iterated that it doesn’t interfere in the outcome of voting processes at the country level.

Aanyaene further asked the IFF office if AMPAS’ asking NOSC to reconvene was clearly ordering it to revote.

Internal wrangle continues as NOSC awaits AMPAS response

Among the entries that made it to the final selection process and were voted on by NOSC’s 15-member committee last month are Biyi Bandele’s ‘Eleshin Oba’, Kunle Afolayan’s ‘Anikulapo’, and Femi Adebayo’s ‘King of Thieves’.

Anayene’s latest response in the NOSC-AMPAS correspondence has furthered stirred debates among members.

Although Mildred Okwo has shut out media inquiries about her stance on the NOSC crisis, TheCable Lifestyle was made to understand that her argument seems to be that the option “non-eligible” shouldn’t have been on the ballot.

This, she appears to argue, is especially as the committee had already short-listed three films that were all marked out as having met the Academy’s technical and local language requirements to compete in the IFF.

NOSC, as of when this report was filed, had already debated the idea of calling a meeting to decide on the next step.

The house also seems to be divided about revoting, with some members arguing that this could amount to asking filmmakers who already voted consciously to backtrack on their judgments about the earlier vetted entries.

Others also expressed concern about how NOSC’s internal wrangle has negatively impacted its public image.