THREE PRE-SELECTED MOVIES BY NIGERIAN OFFICAL SELECTION COMMITTEE (NOSC) FOR THE 96TH OSCAR 2023 EDITION

THREE PRE-SELECTED MOVIES BY NIGERIAN
Within this 2023 year, Nollywood has welcomed crime thrillers, high school dramas, animated features, epic movies, and much more. A lot of movies have touched the souls of people from their various streaming platforms be it at home, cinemas or anywhere else the viewers maybe but these movies have stood out and have done excellently well. Amongst these outstanding movies, there are still some who outstood the outstanding ones and they cannot be ignored.
This year, the Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) will make deliberations and selections for the International Feature Film (IFF) Category for the 96th Oscars edition. The IFF Category is for feature movies containing 50% or more of a language or languages other than English. With NOSC’s recent submission call, they kept together a list of three movies who stand a chance of getting selected to represent Nigeria at the prestigious Oscars Awards. These preselected movies are:
« MAMI WATA« . This is a movie produced by C.J. Fiery Obasi. It tells the story of a remote village in West Africa where the villagers worship the mermaid deity with an intermediary between the people and all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. The movie Mami Wata was shot entirely in Benin located in West Africa, is expressed in Pidgin Dialogue which is what the former chairperson before Mrs Stephanie Linus, Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi fought to be included. The movie will be released in Nigerian cinemas on September 8th 2023.
The next preselected movie is « JAGUN JAGUN« . It is a feature length movie produced by Femi Adebayo Salami. The movie dialogue goes primarily in Yoruba language, it is an epic story of a warlord who finds himself threatened by a young warrior all because of a woman. The movie brought back stories of happenings around the Yoruba empire during the colonial period. Many may disagree on the importance or unimportance of the story the movie told, but the fact that Jagun Jagun beautifully used a traditional story to address a menace presently existing in the modern world with the Yoruba language and other African languages is one that needs applauds. The movie was directed by Adebayo Tijani and Tope Adebayo Salami, the production shoor of the movie Jagun Jagun was described as the largest set in Nigeria with a one-month-long shoot in the Southwest location of Nigeria. The movie was released on Netflix on August 10th 2023.
The final preselected movie is « ORISA« . An epic story also told in Yoruba Dialogue. It tells the story of a deity named Orisa who is a powerful warrior but allies himself with a gang of highly skilled warriors. The movie was shot in the Southwest sector of the country. The movie is said to have stolen the hearts of many cinema and epic lovers even with other theatre rivals at its release. The record-breaking gross of over 100 million in the year 2023 so far. The movie has had a very interesting theatrical run right from its opening weekend which was July 21st 2023. It might be able to win the hearts of many as well if it proceeds to the IFF Category.
Now, within this period, the Nollywood Industry and the movies’ audience await to see what movie gets fully selected for the upcoming 2023 Oscars.
Delia Nyadi