DUBAI: The Oscar 2021 nominations are finally here, and there are two Arab films competing for an award at this year’s ceremony set to take place on April 25.
Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Man Who Sold His Skin” and Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s “The Present” have both been nominated for an Academy Award.
“The Man Who Sold His Skin” is competing in the category of the Best International Feature Film. It is up against Jasmila Zbanic’s war drama “Quo Vadis, Aida?,” the Alexander Nanau-directed “Romania, “’Another Round” from Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg and Kwok Cheung Tsang’s “Better Days.”
Meanwhile, “The Present” is up for the “Best Live Action Short Film” award.
The short film is competing against Doug Roland’s “Feeling Through,” short drama film directed by Elvira Lind “The Letter Room,” “Two Distant Strangers” by Travon Free and the Tomer Shushan-directed “White Eye.”
“The Man Who Sold His Skin,” stars Yahya Mahayni as a Syrian refugee who allows his own body to be turned into a work of art. Part love story, part art-world satire, the film is a complex study of a refugee’s struggle with borders and residency permits.
Inspired by the story of a Swiss national who was tattooed by the Belgian artist Wim Delvoye, the film already won Mahayni the Orizzonti Award for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.
“The Present” is a short film that tells the story about a man named Yusef and his daughter who set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift.
