Why Hollywood Wins Oscars & Nollywood Wins Audiences

By IKE UZOR-NZUBECHI

Strategy, Lobbying, and the Politics of Global Recognition

Nollywood’s Global Ascent

NIGERIA’S film industry has never been more visible. Once dismissed as a regional video-film movement, Nollywood now exports cinema, not just content. Nigerian films dominate African box offices, premiere at Sundance, Berlinale, TIFF and Venice, and stream to millions via Netflix, Prime Video and Showmax. Cinematography is sharper, sound design cleaner, and budgets larger. Filmmakers like Kunle Afolayan, C.J. Obasi, Mo Abudu and Genevieve Nnaji are no longer pitching local relevance alone — they are engineering global appeal.

Still, for all its progress, Nigeria has never secured an Oscar nomination, let alone a win — a paradox for an industry ranked among the world’s most prolific.

The Grammy vs Oscar Divergence

Nigeria’s music industry cracked the global awards code years ago. Artists like Burna Boy, Wizkid, Tems, Sikiru Adepoju and Femi Kuti earned Grammy nominations, wins, and international collaborators. Music succeeded by building global label partnerships, PR machinery, lobbying networks, award-season marketing and sustained visibility.

Film has not enjoyed the same institutional scaffolding. The Oscars are not awarded on volume, virality, or festival buzz alone — they reward campaign budgets, narrative positioning, industry lobbying, studio influence and voting-member persuasion. Nollywood operates largely outside these ecosystems.

Nigeria’s Oscar Submissions: What They Reveal

Nigeria’s submissions to the International Feature Film category in recent years demonstrate ambition, but also the steep structural barriers that govern the Oscars.

• Lionheart (2018)
  Director: Genevieve Nnaji
  Submitted for: 2020 Oscars
  Outcome: Disqualified for having too much dialogue in English, which violated language rules at the time.
  The irony was brutal: Nigeria was penalized for submitting a Nigerian film spoken in the language Nigeria conducts business in. The disqualification triggered global debate on how the category defines “foreignness.”

• Eyimofe (2020)
  Directors: Arie & Chuko Esiri
  Submitted for: 2021 Oscars
  Outcome: Not nominated
  Though critically lauded at Berlinale, the film lacked the massive award-season campaign typically needed to push a film from festival acclaim to Academy voting consciousness.

• The Milkmaid (2020)
  Director: Desmond Ovbiagele
  Submitted for: 2022 Oscars
  Outcome: Not nominated
  A powerful shift to indigenous languages (Hausa and Fulfulde), but again, festival awards did not convert to nominations.

• Aníkúlápó (2022)
  Director: Kunle Afolayan
  Submitted for: 2023 Oscars
  Outcome: Not nominated
  A milestone in folklore cinema, but a reminder that epics need global campaign muscle, not just global streaming availability.

• Mami Wata (2023)
  Director: C.J. Obasi
  Submitted for: 2024 Oscars
  Outcome: Not nominated
  Despite a Special Jury Prize at Sundance, the Oscars again proved that jury admiration is not voter persuasion.

Where Nollywood Lags

Industry insiders point to recurring weak spots:

• Lack of sustained Oscar-season lobbying

• Minimal campaign budgets

• No major studio push

• Weak long-term awards strategy

• Limited Academy voter network cultivation

• Insufficient global tastemaker engagement

The Path Forward

To crack the Oscars, Nollywood must evolve from global visibility to award-season influence, investing in:

• Dedicated Oscar campaign teams

• Partnerships with international distributors and studios

• Voting-member networking

• Strategic screenings in Los Angeles

• Publicist-driven narrative positioning

• Multi-year awards pipeline planning

Nollywood is not losing because it lacks stories — it is losing because stories don’t vote, people do.