The “Oscars” are considered the highest international cinematic recognition, as the annual ceremony held by the “Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” in the United States of America is considered an international recognition of the winning films, grants their makers an irreplaceable privilege, and contributes to introducing cinema lovers to films from different cultures and environments. Different.
In preparation for the “94th” awards cycle, which will be held at the famous Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, on the 10th of next March, four Arab films have been nominated – so far – to compete in the award categories, which is a great dream and ambition for all cinema workers.
The award administration will announce its long list next December, which includes films that have been accepted for nomination in the various award categories, before the short list is officially announced in January 2024, which includes five nominations in each category.
- Bye Bye Tiberias movie
In the Arab world, four films have so far been nominated to compete in the “Best Feature Film/Non-English Language” category: “Bye Bye Tiberias” (Palestine), and “Voi!” Foy! Foy!” (Egypt), “Hanging Gardens” (Iraq), and “Daughters of Olfa” (Tunisia).
The film “Bye Bye Tiberias” by director Lina Sweilem, in a documentary context, deals with a research journey carried out by the director in her roots, highlighting the nature of family and homeland, through a universal human story, revolving around loss and longing.
As the story of the movie “Foy!” Foy! Voy!”, within the framework of a black comedy, about the life of “Hassan”, a security guard who lives a poor life with his mother, and seeks to travel outside Egypt by joining a football team for the blind in one of the World Cup tournaments in Europe, and decides to pretend that he is a visually impaired player. The film was produced by Mohamed Hefzy, written and directed by Omar Hilal, and includes a cast of major and emerging movie stars, including: Mohamed Farrag, Bayoumi Fouad, Taha Desouky, Amjad Al-Hajjar, Hanan Youssef, Mohamed Abdel-Azim, Haggag Abdel-Azim, and with them: Nelly Karim and Basant Shawqi.
- Hanging gardens movie
The events of the movie “Hanging Gardens” revolve around “Asaad” (12 years old), a “garbage collector,” who adopts a “doll” (her nationality is American) found in the waste areas of Baghdad, where he finds himself in the crosshairs of a conflict in which he relies on his courage. Not just to survive, but to live. The film stars: Wissam Diaa, Jawad Al-Shukarji, Hussein Muhammad Jalil, and Akram Mazen Ali.
As for the movie “Daughters of Olfa”, it is inspired by a true story of a Tunisian woman named “Alfa”, who has 4 daughters, suffers from poverty, and witnesses her daughters falling into the swamp of terrorism and extremism, so she tries to help them after they ended up in prison, because they fled to Libya and joined the… ISIS terrorist organization. The film starred actress Hend Sabry, who played the role of “Alfa”, with the participation of: Nour Farwi, Ishraq Matar, and Majd Mastoura.
