Uganda: Bobi Wine’s documentary earns Oscar nomination

The documentary titled Bobi Wine: The People’s President has been nominated for the best documentary feature film alongside four other documentaries, including Tunisian biopic Four Daughters.

The artist took to X to react to the news, writing: “It is such a humbling moment to see the Ugandan story make it to the Academy Awards – the most prestigious and significant awards in the world. Today the fight for democracy in Uganda and around the world lives on. Thank you for this recognition!”

Bobi Wine ran for presidency in 2021 but lost to President Yoweri Museveni in a vote marred by allegations of rigging that sparked countrywide protests by opposition supporters that led to killings by security forces.

Considered a thorn in the flesh of the Ugandan ruling establishment, the artist has been arrested, detained multiple times and subjected to physical assault for criticising Mr Museveni’s rule. Only recently, security forces put up a five-day blockade at his home to prevent the artist from leading demonstrations against the poor condition of roads in Uganda

Bobi Wine: The People’s President was nominated alongside The Eternal Memory, Four Daughters, To Kill a Tiger and 20 Days in Mariupol under the Best Documentary Feature Film category.

The documentary also won the Audience Choice Award at the Cinema Eye Honors 2024 Awards held on January 12. The film also won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2022 Hamptons International Film Festival.

“We are very humbled to see our Ugandan story making it to such a huge global platform,” Bobi Wine told VOA. “It would help us to convince those that fund the regime in Uganda to reconsider, or at least to put stringent conditions, including respect for human rights and respect for democracy.”

He added that he hopes the nomination will have an impact and create more awareness of the struggle in Uganda. “We hope to elevate our voice further, and we hope to ask the world to join our hope and our desperate cry for freedom, for human rights and for democracy in Uganda.”

The film, directed by Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, premiered to a 10-minute standing ovation at the 2022 Venice Film Festival in September 2022. It was then sold to National Geographic before making its US premiere at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival.

Uganda’s minister for Foreign Affairs Henry Okello Oryem has downplayed the nomination. “My only comment is that Western countries are so gullible to everything and anything that anybody that talks negatively against the government, the government of the day, institutions,” he is quoted as saying.