Could this Lebanese creation take home the Best Foreign Film trophy?
It’s that time of the year again, when Tinseltown and the worldwide internet is abuzz with Oscar fever.
The nominations for this year’s Academy Awards were revealed on Tuesday, and two pieces of work from the region have been honoured with an official nod.
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Among those commended by the Academy was The Insult, a Lebanese feature-length movie that’s up for Best Foreign Film at the awards, which will be held in LA on March 4.
The drama now holds the title of the first-ever Lebanese film to be nominated for an Oscar, director Ziad Douieri revealed on Twitter.
#TheInsult is nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film Category at the 90th Academy Awards, for the first time in Lebanese cinema’s history.@TheAcademy @theinsultmovie #Oscars90 #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/S7C6layxO7
— Ziad Doueiri (@ZiadDoueiri) January 23, 2018
The film focuses on a disagreement between a Lebanese Christian and Palestinian refugee that spirals into a explosive legal trial, and will compete with four other works—from Chile, Hungary, Sweden and Russia—for the little gold man.
Dubai International Film Festival was among the first to congratulate the cast and crew on the achievement, calling the nomination a “big milestone for Arab and Lebanese cinema”.
Big milestone for Arab and Lebanese cinema! #Lebanon‘s THE INSULT has just been nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film #Oscar, the first time in the history of Lebanese cinema! Congrats to everyone involved! #SupportArabCinema #OscarNoms #Oscars2018 #Oscars90 pic.twitter.com/LKwJ8uof9y
— Dubai International Film Festival (@dubaifilm) January 23, 2018
Also up for a statue is Syrian-made documentary Last Men in Aleppo, which is nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category.
The film by Feras Fayyad follows the courageous and harrowing work (and fight or flee dilemma) of volunteers from the NGO Syrian Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, who search devastated buildings every day searching for survivors.
One of the best doc features of 2017″https://t.co/aXMFBg9L34 pic.twitter.com/G9dOiKsG7y
— Feras Fayyad (@firasfayy) November 29, 2017
Rounding out the nominations is The Breadwinner, a animated feature film that tells the story of Parvana, a young girl in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Following her father’s arrest, Parvana is forced to disguise herself and find work to support her family.
While the film—nominated for Best Animated Feature Film—is produced between Canada, Ireland, and Luxembourg (and counts Angelina Jolie as an executive producer), the cast is made up of mostly Canadian-based actors with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Middle Eastern descent.
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Congratulations to all the nominees—we’ll let you know how they fare when the Awards are in full swing…
Images: YouTube/Screen grab
