Meet the 3 Nigerians who just got invited into the Oscars Academy

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has revealed its 2019 invitees.
It has over 800 people, half of them women.
This year's list also features three Nigerians.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has invited 842 members to join the Oscars organisation.

Following the #OscarsSoWhite backlash, the new class of inductees has people from 59 countries including Nigeria.

They are the iconic director, Tunde Kelani, actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and writer Chinonye Chukwu.

(AMPAS) Pulse Nigeria

Meet these three new Oscars voters:

Tunde Kelani

Meet this Nigerian legendary filmmaker, director and cinematographer who is better known as TK.

Since the release of 'Orun Mooru', his first film in 1982, Kelani has gone on to make over 15 movies. Most of these were produced via his production company, Mainframe Films and Television Productions, which he started in 1991.

Over the years, he has become well known for his film adaptions. His popular literary adaptions include the 'Thunderbolt: Magun' (adapted from Adebayo Faleti's The Whore) and 'Dazzling Mirage' (Olayinka Abimbola Egbokhare's novel of the same name).

Kelani is currently working on the film adaptation of Wole Soyinka's award-winning play, 'The Lion and the Jewel'.

Talking about the project, he told Punch: "It was [Soyinka] himself who inspired me to embark on the project. He said, 'TK, why not take a look at one of my plays?' Well, I think he said something like 'one of the simple plays'. But when I started to take a closer look at it, trying to break it down, I discovered that it is not as simple as many people think. For one, the play is more of poetry than prose."

The lion and the jewel ece-auto-gen

ALSO READ: Here's what Omotola Jalade Ekeinde thinks about joining Oscars academy

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

This British-Nigerian actor has made a name for himself by standing out in several movies and TV shows.

The list includes 'The Bourne Identity', 'Thor: The Dark World', 'Suicide Squad' and 'Game of Thrones'.

He made his directorial debut at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival with the auto-biographical 'Farming'.

Chinonye Chukwu

She is a Nigerian-American filmmaker who made history by becoming the first black woman to win the Sundance Film Festival's biggest prize.

She won the Grand Jury Prize for her movie, 'Clemency' which she both wrote and directed.

Chinonye Chukwu at the Sundance film festival 2019 [Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images] Chinonye Chukwu at the Sundance film festival 2019 [Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images] Pulse Nigeria

Reportedly, she is set to direct the film adaptation of former Black Panther Party chairwoman, Elaine Brown's memoir, 'A Taste of Power'.

Chukwu is one of the new female invitees to the film academy, which has finally reached gender parity for the first time. Half of this year's invitees are women.