The Milkmaid, a Hausa language-based thriller on insurgency, produced and directed by Desmond Ovbiagele, has been selected by the Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee (NOSC) to represent the country in the International Feature Film category of the 2021 Oscars.
The NOSC announced the selection on Tuesday following a statutory vetting and subsequent voting of several movie entries including Sanitation Day by Seyi Babatope, Voiceless by Robert Peters, Oloture by Kenneth Gyang, Ibi (The Birth) by Seyi Alabi, and Eyimofe by Arie Esiri.
The 12-man committee chaired by film maker, Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi selected The Milkmaid having followed the prescribed procedures by the Academy, subject to further determination by the IFF Executive Committee.
Since the committee was inaugurated in 2014, this would be the second time a movie from Nigeria would be selected as previous entries received by NOSC have not met the basic criteria to be enlisted. However, the first-ever entry in 2019, Lionheart, produced by Genevieve Nnaji was disqualified for not meeting the non-English dialogue criteria.
Anyaene-Abonyi stated that there’s been a significant improvement in the quality of films received this year.
“The Academy’s approved parameters had to be diligently followed to select the country’s entry without prejudice. And I must say that the Nigerian film industry is awakened to the internationally acceptable requirements for film production, though there would always be room for improvement in order to increase our competitive outlook every year,” she said.
The Milkmaid which was shot in Taraba was released on November 27. It tells the story of Zainab (Maryam Booth), a Fulani milkmaid who confronts extremists, in a quest to locate her missing sister, and how efforts to recapture her disrupted past prove complicated.
It earned eight nominations at the 2020 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) slated for December 20.
The 93rd Academy Awards also known as the Oscars will take place on April 25, 2021.
