São Paulo – Brazilian and Jordanian productions have been nominated for this year’s edition of the Academy Awards. The nominations were announced this Thursday (14) by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood, the United States. Brazil’s Boy and the World was nominated for “Best Animation” and Jordan’s Theeb, for “Best Foreign Language Film.”
“Theeb,” by the British-born, Jordanian-descendent filmmaker Naji Abu Nowar, is the first Jordanian production ever nominated. The movie is about two orphan brothers, Hussein and Theeb, who live as nomads in 1916 in the area near Hejaz province, in the western portion of what is now Saudi Arabia.
A British official calls on the siblings to help him find a strategic region for the Ottoman Empire, but the journey proves dangerous and ridden with perils. The film was featured in the 10th Arab World Film Festival last year in São Paulo. “Mustang” (France), “Embrace the Serpent” (Colombia), “Son of Saul” (Hungary) and “A war” (Denmark) are the other nominees in the category.
In “Boy and the World,” a boy who lives in an isolated city decides to venture out looking for his father. Through the child’s eyes, the animation deals with contemporary cultural, political and economic challenges. The production by Alê Abreu is competing against “Inside out,” “Anomalisa,” “Shaun, the Sheep” and “When Marnie Was There.”
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
