Danish documentary 'Flee' makes Oscar history with three nominations

It is the first film to be nominated in the documentary, animated and international categories by the Academy

'Flee' tells the story of 'Amin', an Afghan asylum-seeker who escaped Kabul in the 1990s. Photo: AP

Flee, a Danish animated documentary, made history on Tuesday when it became the first film to receive Oscar nominations in the following three categories: Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature.

Filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen's work tells the true story of Amin, an Afghan asylum-seeker who travels from Kabul to Copenhagen. It is told through a series of interviews with Amin – an assumed name – who left Afghanistan after the conflict there worsened in the 1990s.

In the Best International Feature category, Flee will compete against: Drive My Car, Japan; The Worst Person in the World, Norway; Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, Bhutan; and The Hand of God, Italy.

In the Animated Feature category, it will compete against Disney's Encanto and Raya and the Last Dragon, Pixar's Luca and Netflix's The Mitchells vs the Machines.

In the Best Documentary category it will compete against Ascension, Attica, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) and Writing with Fire.

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last year, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema – Documentary.

Since then it's won several awards including the Cristal Prize for Best Feature and Best Original Music at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, as well as a British Independent Film Award, a Gotham Independent Film Award and Best Documentary at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

It has also received numerous nominations including two Bafta nominations for Best Documentary and Best Animated Film.

The film is produced by Monica Hellstrom, Charlotte De La Gournerie and Signe Byrge Sorensen (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence), while Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) and Riz Ahmed (The Sound of Metal) are its executive producers. Ahmed is also nominated this year for his short film The Long Goodbye.

The 94th Academy Awards will be held on March 27