"My Father's Shadow": Nigerian At Cannes, British At The Oscars

The Story⚡

Nigeria’s cinematic masterpiece, My Father’s Shadow, premiered at Cannes and dazzled at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2025—yet it will compete at the Oscars as Britain’s entry, not Nigeria’s. Why? Academy rules and colonial legacies are locking Nigerian films out of global recognition.

Tell Me More

The Academy’s International Feature Film category requires that at least 51% of a film’s dialogue be in a country’s local language. For Nigeria, where English, a colonial legacy, serves as the lingua franca across 250+ ethnic groups, this rule creates an impossible bind. My Father’s Shadow is spoken in Yoruba, Naija-Pidgin, and English; a realistic linguistic mix reflects how Nigerians actually communicate. This likely pushed the English dialogue above 51%, making it ineligible for Nigeria’s Oscar submission despite being entirely Nigerian in cast, crew, story, and setting. However, its majority-English dialogue qualifies it for the UK, where English is the local language, allowing Britain to claim it through co-production.

The irony is stark: Nigeria’s use of English, imposed by British colonization, now prevents its films from representing the nation at the Oscars, while the UK can submit these same Nigerian stories. Funded by BBC Film and the British Film Institute’s National Lottery, My Father’s Shadow achieved Cannes-level quality but was claimed by Britain for Oscar eligibility. Nigerian filmmakers face a brutal choice: accept foreign funding to meet global standards, or preserve national identity at the cost of prestige and resources.

Nollywood, the world’s second-largest film industry by output, faces distribution challenges that make purely indigenous-language films—like Yoruba, Igbo, or Hausa—commercially unviable. Limited theatrical circuits and fragmented regional audiences mean such films struggle to recoup costs domestically, while international distribution often requires the foreign financing that transfers Oscar eligibility.

In 2026, Nigeria submitted no Oscar entry because no film met the Academy’s rules, exposing a system that forces filmmakers to choose between authentic storytelling for local audiences, commercial viability, or global recognition under another country’s flag.

This isn’t an isolated case. My Father’s Shadow highlights a structural issue: the Academy’s linguistic nationalism disregards post-colonial realities, ensuring Anglophone African nations remain excluded while former colonial powers claim their stories.

Key Takeaways

International co-production funding has become the only pathway to Oscar consideration for Nigerian films, but accepting European money means ceding national representation—Nigerian stories succeed globally only when claimed by former colonial powers.

Nollywood’s distribution challenges make Oscar-compliant indigenous-language films commercially unviable, trapping filmmakers between artistic authenticity, commercial survival, and international recognition—they cannot achieve all three simultaneously.

“My Father’s Shadow” represents a precedent, not an anomaly—as Nigerian cinema pursues global prestige, more films will compete under foreign flags because the Academy’s rules privilege linguistic nationalism over cultural authenticity.

In Summary

When My Father’s Shadow premiered in October 2025, it revealed a systemic flaw: Academy rules prevent Nigeria from submitting its own films due to a 51% non-English dialogue requirement that clashes with the country’s multilingual, English-reliant reality. UK funding enabled the film’s global success, but it also forced it to compete as Britain’s Oscar entry.

Nollywood’s commercial constraints make Oscar-compliant indigenous-language films impractical, trapping filmmakers between authenticity, survival, and recognition. Until the Academy revises its rules, Nigeria’s stories will shine on the world stage—under someone else’s flag.