[Peace-discuss] Paradise Now

[David Green]

Nominated, but did not win. Playing this week at 9:45
at Boardman's Art Theatre. 

Art, Music & Culture
Palestine gets its first Oscar nomination with
Paradise Now
Arjan El Fassed, The Electronic Intifada, 31 January
2006

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Paradise Now has been nominated "best foreign language
film" for the 78th Annual Academy Awards -- better
known as the Oscars. The film was directed by
Palestinian Hany Abu-Assad from a screenplay he
cowrote with Bero Beyer, the film's Dutch producer.
Paradise Now chronicles the 48 hours before two best
friends in Nablus are sent on a suicide mission to
Israel. The New York Times said it “accomplishes the
tricky feat of humanising the suicide bombers depicted
in the film”. The paper dubbed the film "a taut,
ingeniously calculated thriller".

This is the first Academy Award nomination for
Palestine. Three years ago, it was the first time a
Palestinian film entered the Oscars race for best
foreign film. Elia Suleiman's Divine Intervention,
acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won
the international critics' prize, could have been a
contender for the Oscars. At first Hollywood's Academy
of Motion Pictures refused to accept the film as a
candidate for the best foreign-language film because
the Academy believed that Palestine was not recognized
as a nation. 

Sensing a political motive for the film's rejection,
Palestinian voices pointed out that the Academy has
accepted films in the past from territories like
Puerto Rico, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Then the Academy
said there were other reasons why Divine Intervention
was not eligible. It stated that the film was put
forward by its producers and not by a
properly-constituted selection committee in its
country of origin and it hadn't been released in its
home territory either. Later, the Academy decided to
make "an exception". Academy spokesman Jon Pavlik told
entertainment magazine Variety: "The committee decided
to treat Palestine as an exception in the same way we
treat Hong Kong as an exception. It's always the goal
of the foreign-language film award executive committee
to be as inclusive as possible."

Paradise Now has already won many international awards
to date, including the European Film Academy’s Best
Screenplay award and the Berlin Festival’s “Blue
Angel” award. With these prizes at earlier festivals,
Paradise Now heads into the March 5 awards,
potentially the first Palestinian film to claim the
grand prize at the Oscars. Other nominees in the
foreign language category are Don't Tell (Italy),
Merry Christmas (France), Sophie Scholl - The Final
Days (Germany) and Tsotsi (South Africa). Earlier this
month Paradise Now won a Golden Globe.

Nominees are chosen by specific branches of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, such as
directors, actors and writers. The full academy
membership of about 5,800 is eligible to vote in all
categories for the Oscars themselves. ABC will
broadcast the Oscars live from Hollywood's Kodak
Theatre, with Jon Stewart as host.

Related Links

"Paradise Now" wins Golden Globe for Best Foreign
Language Film (16 January 2006)

Paradise Now

The 78th Annual Academy Awards

BY TOPIC: Films 



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