Kenyan film ‘Kati Kati’ selected for Oscar Awards
By HILARY KIMUYUKati Kati, a Kenyan film on a mythical place in between life and the afterlife, has been submitted for next year’s 90th Academy Awards (Oscars) in the Best Foreign Language Film Award.
Kati Kati is one of the two entries that the Oscars Selection Committee Kenya received, the other one being Kidnapped, a film about a jilted lover’s revenge.
According to the committee, the category of Best Foreign Language Film requires that the film must be predominantly in a language or languages other than English, a criteria which Kidnapped failed to meet.
Although the main discourse is delivered in English, Kati Kati met all the requirements on the checklist since it has substantial amounts of Swahili, Sheng and splashes of vernacular.
THE CAST
This Entry of Kati Kati is only the first step in a series of stages that the movie has to undergo before being nominated. The nominees for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced by the Academy on January 23, 2018.
Speaking to Nairobi News, the main actor of Kati Kati Nyokabi Githaiga said she was really proud of the whole cast and crew and proud that a film she was in had been submitted for the Oscars.
“We’ve come a long way since we did the first reading of the script at ginger ink, and for me, it’s been a phenomenal experience seeing people from not just Kenya but different parts of the world embrace the film,” Ms Githaiga said.
“I think there are beautifully diverse forms of storytelling and I think storytelling is a celebration of cultural diversity. We have a goldmine, as a continent, and we need to celebrate that. So, I only hope we continue to tap into and invest more in this goldmine, and one day the world will see it and celebrate with us too,” she added.