The Milkmaid, a movie directed by Desmond Ovbiagele, did not make the shortlist for the International Feature Film (IFF) category of the 2021 Oscars.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced the first shortlist of 15 films in the IFF category of this year’s Oscars but The Milkmaid didn’t make the cut.
The Milkmaid was in December announced by the 12-member Nigeria Official Selection Committee (NOSC) as Nigeria’s entry for the 93rd Oscars in the category of best international feature film, following a statutory vetting and subsequent voting of entries received from Nigerian filmmakers at home and abroad.
The Milkmaid bested Sanitation Day, Voiceless, Oloture, Ibi (The Birth) and Eyimofe which all made it to the last six in December 2020.
Inspired by the image on Nigeria’s 10 Naira note, The Milkmaid is a Hausa language-based thriller on insurgency, especially as it affects women and children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It tells the story of a Fulani milkmaid who confronts extremists in a rural African community, in a quest to locate her missing sister, and how efforts to recapture her disrupted past prove complicated.
Shot on location in Taraba State, The Milkmaid stars Maryam Booth, Ibrahim Jammal, Anthonieta Kalunta and Gambo Usman Kona among others.
Ovbiagele told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the movie was inspired by the two iconic figures at the back of the 10 Naira note on Monday.
He said, “The screenplay was inspired by the two iconic figures at the back of the 10 Naira note, those are the Fulani milkmaids who were carrying their calabashes.
“So I sought to imagine what would happen if the two characters were caught up in an insurgency situation. How would their lives play out and how would they adjust to the new way of life that would be imposed on them.”
Speaking on the adaptation of Hausa language for the movie, Ovbiagele said “one could have chosen the easier decision to shoot the film in English language, but because we were striving for authenticity, we didn’t think it would be authentic enough for people in that rural area setting to speak `Queens English’.
“What they would normally speak would be Hausa and the Fulanis would speak Fulfude. This is how we arrived at the language used in the film.”
The Milkmaid received eight nominations at the 16th edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in December 2020, winning five awards for best film, best supporting actress, best Nigerian film, best film in an African language and achievement in make-up.
The 93rd edition of the Academy Awards (The Oscars) is scheduled to hold on April 25.
Nigeria’s first-ever official submission for an Oscar Lionheart was disqualified in 2019 for not meeting the non-English dialogue criteria.
