Prior to the 2020 list which was just released, the last time an African movie made it to the Oscar nominations list for Foreign Language Film was in 2014 (Mauritanian film ‘Timbuktu’).
For some reason, African movies just keep trying almost unsuccessfully to win the Oscars. Most people just won’t admit that it is possible that an African movie has what it takes to beat a movie from Europe, Asia or America at the Oscars?
Late last year, Nigeria’s first-ever entry, ‘Lionheart’ was disqualified a few days after being accepted. ‘Lionheart’ didn’t make it far, being the only movie allowed to be submitted according to Academy rule. However, there are 10 African movies that were cleared for the Oscar 2020 Nominations in Foreign Language Film. None made it to the nominations list.
African movies submitted for Oscar 2020 Foreign Language Film nominations
- Algeria: ‘Papicha’ – Mounia Meddour
- Senegal: ‘Atlantics‘ – Mati Diop
- Ethiopia: ‘Running Against the Wind’- Jan Philipp Weyl
- Ghana: ‘Azali’ – Kwabena Gyansah
- Nigeria: ‘Lionheart‘ – Genevieve Nnaji
- Kenya: ‘Subira’ – Ravneet Singh Chadha
- Morocco: ‘Adam’ – Maryam Touzani
- Egypt: ‘Poisonous Roses’ – Ahmed Fawzi Saleh
- South Africa: ‘Knuckle City’ – Jahmil X.T. Qubeka
- Tunisia: ‘Dear Son’ – Mohamed Ben Atti
Criticism is not unlikely for certain Academy rules. It also seems a bit unfair to provide only one category for international language films.
Algeria, South Africa and Egypt have always topped the list of African countries who submit movies at the Oscars. Africa can only be hopeful that the Academy will create new categories to accommodate low budget films.
South Africa has had at least 16 submissions, two nominations, and one win since their first submission in 1989.
Algeria first submitted in 1969 and has at least one win, five nominations and 21 submissions. Below are movies that made it in the Oscar category for Foreign Language in 2020:
Oscar 2020 Nominations for Foreign Language Film
- ‘Parasite’ – South Korea
- ‘Pain and Glory’ – Spain
- ‘Les Misérables’ – France
- ‘Honeyland’ – Macedonia
- ‘Corpus Christi’ – Poland
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