Iraqi Filmmaker wins Cinema in Motion Award at SSIFF

Iraqi Mohamed Al-Daradji's movie IN THE SANDS OF BABYLON received the 5th Cinema in Motion Award yesterday at the San Sebastián International Film Festival (SSIFF). The award is worth about $50,000 in cash and services.

In the Program, San Sebastián's Cinema in Motion, together with Films in Progress, presented three films, one each from Iraq, Egypt and Palestine: IN THE SANDS OF BABYLON (Iraq) by Mohamed Al-Daradji; NOMAD'S HOME (Beit Sha’ar, Egypt) by Iman Kamel; and PORT OF MEMORY (Palestine-Germany) by Kamal Aljafari. Afterward, the participants in the program decided to grant their award to Al-Daradji.

Mohamed Al-Daradji (born in Baghdad, Iraq) is now a dual Dutch-Iraqi citizen. He studied theatre directing in Baghdad and fled to The Netherlands in 1995 where he specialized as a cameraman. Later, he graduated with a MA in cinematography in Leeds. He has created several short films and commercials. 

One of his first features was AHLAAM, 2005, which took him back to Baghdad to film for four months while the war was raging. It was dangerous and difficult to film. Production was slowed as electricity would often fail. In 2006, the movie won the Brooklyn International Film Festival's Spirit Award. His other films include: SON OF BABYLON, 2009, and The Actors, Match Report and Chicken Soup, all in 2004.

For more about the SSIFF, see previous posts, and for more on the films in the 'Cinema in Motion' program, click title of this post. For all posts about SSIFF, click SSIFF in tags at bottom of this post.

Oscar® Feature Docs Short List

Originally, 70 documentary features qualified for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences'® Best Documentary Feature Film in this year's Oscar race. Under the rules, all were screened by the committees, and 15 films have advanced to the next step - - choosing five for nomination.

Here's the short list with a little extra (Docs with dirctor(s), USA productions and in color, unless noted):

AUTISM: THE MUSICAL - Tricia Regan (Music and autistic children).

BODY OF WAR - Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro (Wounded vets).

FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO - Daniel G. Karslake (Homosexuality and religion intersect).

LAKE OF FIRE - Tony Kaye (Abortion, B&W).

NANKING - Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman (1938 "Rape of Nanking, China, by Japanese").

NO END IN SIGHT - Charles Ferguson (Iraq - Special Jury Prize, Sundance IFF).

OPERATION HOMECOMING: WRITING THE WARTIME EXPERIENCE - Richard Robbins (Troops in Iraq & Afghanistan - Special Jury Award Florida FF; nominated for IDA* award).

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME - Weijun Chen, South Africa (Election, elementary class style).

THE PRICE OF SUGAR - Bill Haney, USA / D.R. (Exploitation of workers in Dominican Republic - Audience Award, SXSW FF).

A PROMISE TO THE DEAD: THE EXILE JOURNEY OF ARIEL DORFMAN - Peter Raymont, Canada (Memories of exile, longing and democracy in Argentina through the words of author /activist Dorfman).

THE RAPE OF EUROPA - Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham (Chronicles struggle to keep Nazis from destroying centuries of western culture - Audience Award, RiverRun IFF).

SICKO - Michael Moore (Comparing U.S. health system to others - nominated for IDA* award).

TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE - Alex Gibney (Torture in Afghanistan, Gitmo, and Iraq - Best Doc, Chicago IFF; nominated for IDA* award).

WAR/DANCE - Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine (Children in displacement camp compete in Uganda music festival despite war - Directing Award, Sundance IFF; Audience Award, Wisconsin FF; nominated for IDA* award).

WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN - Steven Okazaki (Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the horror they brought to children).

*International Documentary Association Finalist. Gala is 8 December 2007. Also, see my Awards Page.

The 80th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, 22 January 2008, at 5:30 a.m. PT, in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Wilshire Boulvard, Beverly Hills, CA. The awards gala is 24 February 2008.

Oscar® Short Docs Nomination Shortlist

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences® announced last Thursday that the Documentary Short Subject entries for the 80th Academy Awards® has now narrowed to eight films. Three to five on this list will earn Oscar® nominations for the 2008 Academy Award.

Voters from the Academy’s Documentary Branch viewed this year’s 23 eligible contenders and submitted their ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The eight lucky films are listed below in alphabetical order:

BODY & SOUL: DIANA & KATHY
OCHBERG'S ORPHANS
FREEHELD
IF IT HAPPENS
LA CORONA (The Crown)
OCHBERG'S ORPHANS
PORTRAITS OF A LADY
SALIM BABA
SARI'S MOTHER

Here is more information about some of the above docs for which I could find viable links:

FREEHELD (2007, UK), directed by Cynthia Wade, and has won 7 awards so far. The full title is, FREEHELD: THE LAUREL HESTER STORY.

OCHBERG'S ORPHANS (2007, 39 min, UK), directed by Jon Blair. Not to be confused with the feature documentary of the same name, directed by Kim Hogg. UPDATE 10/20: I received a comment (see below) from the writer / director, Jon Blair, informing me that the other short I referenced, directed by Kim Hogg and produced by Rainmaker Films, was an unrealized project. Thank you, sir! I'm posting this in case anyone else might be as confused as I was. See my comment.

SALIM BABA (2006, 14 min, India / USA, in Bengali with English subtitles), directed by Tim Sternberg. Made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival this past April.

SARI'S MOTHER (2006, 21 min, Iraq / USA). directed by James Longley. Excised from last years Academy Award-nominated film IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS, this doc headlines a collection of short films from Iraq. The title film documents the plight of a mother of a 10-year-old boy with HIV as she navigates the Iraqi health care system, fragmented by the American invasion, in an attempt to find treatment for her son. It won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival this past May, but was first shown at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. Available now on DVD.

The 80th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, 22 January 2008, at 5:30 a.m. PT, in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The awards gala is 24 February.

MIMI'S NEW BLOG

I'm searching for the Baghdad Blogger, Salam Pax. I've added a new blog, WHERE IS SALAM PAX. Perhaps, you can help me find his current whereabouts. Click the title of this post to view the blog.

More later.