Anthology film From Ground Zero is among the 15 films in the running for the best international film award at next year’s event [Getty]
Three Palestinian films have been shortlisted for the 2025 Oscars, marking a significant achievement for Palestinian cinema amid the ongoing devastation in Gaza and the West Bank.
Co-produced Metafora Production – which is part of Fadaat Media group alongside The New Arab, ‘From Ground Zero‘ was among the 15 films in the running for the best international film award at next year’s event.
The movie is an anthology of 22 short films curated by Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi depicting the daily lives of Gazans suffering amid Israel’s brutal war on the strip.
The shorts showcase a diverse range of styles by talented Palestinian filmmakers, including animation, documentaries, and fiction, and tell personal stories of loss and resilience under the Israeli siege.
The film premiered at this year’s Amman International Film Festival and had its North America premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, picking up a number of awards at this year’s Cairo Film Festival.
It was expected to have its world premiere at Cannes, the world’s largest film festival, before the organisers cancelled the screening allegedly due to political reasons. In protest at the decision, Masharawi screened the film himself in a tent close to the glitzy cinema ball.
Israel’s offensive and siege have plunged Gaza into a humanitarian catastrophe, amid widespread accusations of genocide against Palestinians in the enclave.
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Meanwhile, the Palestinian-Israeli documentary ‘No Other Land‘Â has been shortlisted for the Best Documentary award, which documents Palestinian journalist Basel Adra’s fight to protect his village in the occupied West Bank from attacks by Israeli settlers.
The film was directed by Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and has garnered awards from several film festivals around the world since its premiere earlier this year.
Mohammed al-Mughanni’s short film ‘An Orange from Jaffa‘ has been shortlisted for the live-action short film category.
The Gaza-born director’s film follows a young Palestinian looking for a taxi to take him through an Israeli checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.
These selections come at a time when the world’s attention is focused on the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s brutal offensive, which has claimed over 45,000 lives since 7 October 2023.
The war on Gaza, widely viewed as a genocide, has led to an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes, highlighting the gravity of the suffering and the urgency of these stories being told.
The final nominations for the awards will be announced on 17 January 2025 ahead of the ceremony on 2 March.
