DUBAI: The 94th Academy Awards, set to take place on March 27, 2022, saw 93 films submitted for the International Feature Film category. A shortlist of 15 finalists will be announced on Dec. 21, with the five nominees announced on Feb. 8, 2022.
Read on for the Middle Eastern films that have been submitted.
‘Casablanca Beats’ (Morocco)
The film is based on the director’s own childhood experience and was the first fully Moroccan film to compete for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
‘The Stranger’ (Palestine)
Palestinian director Ameer Fakher Eldin’s debut feature is about an unlicensed doctor who encounters a wounded man during the war in Syria.
‘Heliopolis’ (Algeria)
The Djafer Gacem-directed Algerian drama is based on the real-life events of May 8, 1945, when French colonial forces attacked thousands of Algerians in the city of Guelma.
‘Golden Butterfly’ (Tunisia)
Directed by Tunisian filmmaker Abdelhamid Bouchnak, the drama tells the story of Moez, a policeman who meets a little boy with whom he ?embarks on a journey that is part fantasy and part reality.
‘Europa’ (Iraq)
Local mercenaries are ruthlessly hunting down migrants at the Turkish-Bulgarian border in Iraqi director Haider Rashid’s drama, which is the country’s first Oscars submission in two years.
‘Costa Brava, Lebanon’ (Lebanon)
Director Mounia Akl’s debut is set amid a raging climate crisis in near-future Lebanon.
‘A Hero’ (Iran)
Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, the premise of the film is that a man is in prison because of a debt he was unable to repay. During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor to withdraw his complaint against the payment of part of the sum, however, things don’t go as planned.