How Nairobi Half Life Missed Out on the Oscars

Many people have been asking how Nairobi Half Life did at the Academy Awards after the nominations were announced yesterday. Well, the film did not make the nominations but we didn’t have to wait till yesterday to confirm.

Two weeks ago, the Academy whittled down the films from the submitted 71 films to a shortlist of nine. Nairobi Half Life did not appear in the shortlist so it was obvious even before yesterday that it would not make it to the biggest film awards showcase in the world.

All the submitted films were screened for hundreds of LA-based Academy members from mid-October to mid-December. Their top six choices were selected and three more were added by a Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee.

At this point, NHL was already out but the remaining nine films were screened for specially invited committess in LA and New York between January 4th and 6th.

No films from Africa or Asia advanced. The films that made the shortlist but were not announced yesterday in the final nomination include:

The Intouchables (France)
The Deep (Iceland)
Beyond The Hills (Romania)
Sister (Switzerland)

Maybe Kenya will have better luck next year with Something Necessary coming out this year. It is almost guaranteed to be the country’s official submission for the next awards. Check out the trailer here. And this year’s nominees for Best Foreign Language film are:

Amour (Austria)
Kon-Tiki (Norway)
No (Chile)
A Royal Affair (Denmark)
War Witch (Canada)