This year’s Oscars ceremony will take place on February 9 at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
The Oscars 2020 Documentary (Feature) nominations were announced on Monday and two Syrian documentaries For Sama and The Cave have made it to the list.
For Sama is a first-person account of a 26-year old female Syrian filmmaker, Waad al-Kateab. Directed by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts, For Sama documents al- Kateab’s life over five years of the uprising in rebel-held Aleppo.
The film shows al-Kateab falling in love, getting married to one of the last practising doctors in the city, giving birth to Sama, and saying goodbye to her besieged home, all on camera.
For Sama received several awards including Prix L’Oeil d’Or for Best Documentary at Cannes Film Festival last year and Best British Independent Film at the British Independent British Awards.
The Cave, directed by Syrian-born filmmaker Feras Fayyad, is set in a war-torn Syria, where a dedicated team of female doctors tirelessly treat casualties in an underground hospital while battling systemic sexism.
Fayyad and his team followed Dr Amani Ballor, a paediatrician and the manager of an underground hospital in Al Ghouta, as she tended to patients and tried to maintain morale as bombs dropped all around her and her team. Between 2012 to 2018, they shot roughly 1,000 hours of material.
Other films nominated in the same category this year are The Edge of Democracy, Honeyland, and American Factory.