Filmmaker Judy Kibinge has been chosen to be part of the Oscar Academy. She will join the panel that chooses which films get the nominated for the Oscar Academy Awards, popularly referred to as the Oscars. She is going to be part of a 774 member committee.
Judy is the brains behind some of the most talked about Kenyan films. Her prominent films include Dangerous Affairs (2002), Project Daddy and Killer Necklace which won her a Kalasha Award in 2010. She has also had a film, Something Necessary(2013), which was screened some time back at the Toronto International Film Festival. She is also the brains behind the kid’s TV series Tinga Tinga Tales.
Taking to social media she celebrated her selection, she wrote,” Blink! Blink! What a list! Honored!”.
https://twitter.com/judykibinge/status/883440123899252736
According to The Daily Nation, “Kibinge was born in 1967 in Nairobi and her family moved to Washington D.C. in America in 1969 when she was two. At the tender age of seven years old after she won a children’s writing competition in America before her family relocated back in Kenya. She attended Kenya High School before moving to the UK for her post-secondary education. She was first enrolled in Malvern Girls College, before attending Art College in Birmingham. She later proceeded to Manchester Polytechnic and graduated in Design for Communication Media.”
Gal Gadot of ‘Wonder Woman’ is one of the many actresses and actors that joins Judy. This move aims at diversifying the Oscars by including minority groups such as women and more people of color.
Blogger April Reign had coined the phrase #OscarsSoWhite to protest the whitewashing that was seen at the Oscar awards in 2016. Kibinge will join the 39% of women who will make up the panel this year. Why her appointment is important is because she carries her Kenyan background and appreciation for art with her, adding to the diversity of the panel. With a string of accolades including nomination for the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Documentary, her inclusion in the panel is set to put her career on the global map.
