Joy(Movie, 2018)

Joy is a 2018 Austrian drama film directed and written by Sudabeh Mortezai. The plot revolves around Joy (Anwulika Alphonsus), a young Nigerian woman who walks the streets to pay off debts while also supporting her family in Nigeria and her daughter in Vienna. It was selected as the Austrian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. However, the film was disqualified in November 2019, with the Academy stating that the film had too much dialogue in English. The filmmakers disputed the disqualification, arguing that when the parts of the dialogue in Nigerian Pidgin that are unintelligible to English speakers are counted separately from English, English constitutes less than 50% of the entire dialogue and thus the film should be eligible, but the Academy stood by its initial decision. ()