It has become the norm that the beginning
of every year is abuzz with Hollywood Award Season talk. From Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills to Vilakazi
Street in Soweto millions of people are in deep conversation and or debate
about who is deserving of Hollywood’s top accolades. Last week, I was one such person. My
colleagues and I were so thrilled about
the announcement of the Academy Award nominations that we decided to have a
competition to see who would predict the nominees in the various acting,
directing and best picture categories.
Being the humble cinephile (A person with a
passionate interest in cinema) that I am - I will not waste time telling you
that I won that competition. Though the
victory made my week, my elation was cut short after realising that while
celebrating knowledge of American cinema I had been oblivious to African talent
making headway at those very awards.
So while I was busy predicting whether or
not Quinton Tarantino or Steven Spielberg were going to get Oscar nods I had neglected
to find out what African filmmakers were vying for the golden statuettes. I was
mortified to discover a couple days later that – ‘Asad’, a short film shot in South Africa, had received an Oscar
nod. What makes my ignorance even worse is the fact that the film had scooped
Best Short Film awards at 13 festivals around the world during the past year.
How had this film managed to fly under my movie radar?
The answer is simple, I - like many other Africans,
am always preoccupied by what the likes of Hollywood and Bollywood are doing
that we become unaware of the gems in our backyard. ‘Asad’ is one such gem - a coming of age fable of a Somali boy,
named Asad, as he struggles to survive in his war-torn land. The movie takes us
into the lives of ordinary people in a seaside village in Somalia, providing
the audience with a glimpse into the daily struggles of ordinary Somalis living
in a dysfunctional and failed state.
Now that the wool has been removed from my
eyes, I am definitely rooting for ‘Asad’ to win the best Short Film Oscar – but
the irony is no one seems to care. Everyone around me is too upset that
Leonardo DiCaprio was snubbed at the 85th Academy Awards.
