Films from Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Palestine and Iraq have been entered into the Best International Film category for next year's Oscars.
Originally called Best Foreign Language Film, the category dates back to 1947 and was renamed Best International Film in 2020. The first Oscar nearly 80 years ago went to Italy’s Shoeshine directed by Vittorio De Sica, while this year's winner was The Zone of Interest from the UK, directed by Jonathan Glazer.
More than 86 films have been submitted so far from around the world, according to Deadline.
Here are the entries from Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Palestine and Iraq hoping to make the final shortlist for the 2025 Academy Awards.
Arze (Lebanon)
Lebanon's entry is Arze, a film directed by Mira Shaib about a mother who accompanies her son across Beirut to retrieve his stolen scooter. The film stars Diamand Abou Abboud as the mother, Arze, which means cedar tree, the symbol of Lebanon.
The film was written and produced by Louay Khraish and Faissal Sam Shaib and was among the first recipients of the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation Production Fund. The film's production started in 2019 but faced turbulence due to protests in Lebanon and was halted altogether due to the pandemic. Production continued in 2022 despite difficulties arising from the country facing a financial crisis.
Arze had its premiere at last year's Cairo International Film Festival before being screened at the Beijing International Film Festival and Tribeca Festival this year.
Flight 404 (Egypt)
Flight 404 is primarily a thriller, with actor Mona Zaki doing most of the heavy lifting. Directed by Hani Khalifa, Zaki stars in the film as Ghada, a young woman who is set to travel to Makkah to perform the Hajj pilgrimage. Ghada faces financial setbacks days before she is set to take off and must deal with unsavoury characters from her past in order to make her flight. The first Egyptian film to shoot scenes in Saudi Arabia, it screened in cinemas across the Arab world in January, making more than $3 million in ticket sales. Flight 404 can now be watched on Shahid Plus.
Everybody Loves Touda (Morocco)
French-Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch’s film screened at the most recent Cannes Festival and received positive reviews. It stars Nisrin Erradi as the titular Touda, a single mother who is a Sheikha, or a traditional Moroccan singer. The film follows as she performs in the bars of her small town in the hope of making it to Casablanca to become a famous singer. In his review for The National, James Mottram described the film as a “euphoric watch, driven by Erradi, who handles the emotional heft of the film as competently as she manages the musical numbers”.
Algiers (Algeria)
Chakib Taleb-Bendiab’s debut feature follows the kidnapping of a little girl in the Algerian capital, Algiers. The event brings together a psychiatrist and a police inspector as they work together to solve the crime and bring the child home. Algiers stars Meriem Medjkane, Nabil Asli and Hichem Mesbah and was filmed on the streets of the Algerian capital. Algiers will hope to replicate the success of Algerian political thriller Z, the first Arab film to win the Oscar in 1970.
From Ground Zero (Palestine)
A collection of 22 short films by Gazan filmmakers make up From Ground Zero. These films, led by Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, first screened at this year’s Amman International Film Festival. The project was initially expected to be shown at the Cannes Festival but was then pulled. Masharawi then led a protest screening in the French resort town with no official backing from Cannes.
The stories presented in From Ground Zero vary across a spectrum of emotions, ranging from resilience and tragedy to hope and finding joy in unlikely places. They also incorporate unexpected elements, including animation, puppetry and stop-motion. One of the shorts, titled Recycling, shows how people have to make do with scarce resources. The film, directed by Rabab Khamis, revolves around a mother, who utilises a single bucket of water to hydrate her children, bathe them, clean the floors of their house and do the laundry.
Baghdad Messi (Iraq)
Filmmaker Sahim Omar Kalifa has adapted his short film of the same name from 2012 into a feature film that follows the story of a child who lost his leg during the US invasion of Iraq. The child’s dreams of playing football are not perturbed, though, despite needing the use of crutches, and he continues to enjoy the game with his friends.
The feature film’s production was supported by Belgium, with the screenplay written by Kobe Van Steenberghe, who also produced the film alongside Hendrik Verthe. Baghdad Messi screened at several film festivals, including the Ostend Film Festival in Belgium and Shanghai International Film Festival in China.
