This is for the benefit of serious Nigerian filmmakers in Nollywood and other woods.

Rules change for foreign-language Oscar
The Academy's governors approved a new process in judging foreign language films, allowing New York-based Academy members to participate in the selection for the first time, according to a statement issued Friday.

A shortlist of films from nine countries will be chosen by the same Los Angeles-based screening committee that has traditionally viewed the approximately 60 submissions.

That shortlist will then be screened by a second committee, made up of 10 randomly selected members of the original committee, ten Los Angeles-based members not on the original committee and ten New York-area members.

They will view the shortlisted films and select nominees from that field.

In another change, entries submitted in the category no longer must be in the official language of the country submitting the film. As long as the dominant language is not English, a picture from any country may be in any language or combination of languages.

Academy Award nominations will be announced in January. The 79th Annual Academy Awards will be presented Feb. 25, 2007.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20060702/ap_on_en_mo/oscars_foreign_films_1