The Palestinian Ministry of Culture announced that the film “From Distance Zero” has been nominated to officially represent Palestine in the International Feature Film category for the 97th Academy Awards in 2025.
In a statement published on the Ministry’s official page, they confirmed the nomination of the group “From Distance Zero”, which includes several short films made by the Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi.
The nomination of the film came after a session organized by the Ministry, which is the authority with the authority to submit nominations for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars), through an independent professional committee of employees there the Palestinian film section.
The committee selected the film “From Distance Zero,” which had its world premiere at the Amman International Film Festival in its fifth session in July 2024, and is scheduled to be shown in several festivals Arab and international in the next stage, including the Toronto International Film Festival in its September session next September. The film also started appearing in 10 Palestinian cities in this month of August.
“From Distance Zero” is a collection that describes the experience of filmmakers from Gaza who filmed with limited abilities under the pressure of the genocidal war “Al-Aqsa Flood” that has been raging since October 7, 2023, in various forms between fiction. , documentary, and documentary.
It was directed by several Gazan filmmakers: Nada Abu Hasna, Karim Sattoum, Bashar Al-Balbisi, Mahdi Karira, Aws Al-Banna, Hana Aliwa, Nidal Damo, Etemad Weshah, Alaa Damo, Rima Mahmoud, Muhammad Al-Sharif , Khamis Masharawi, Islam Al-Zarii, Basil Al-Maqousi, Mustafa Al-Nabih, Ahmed Al-Danaf, Wissam Moussa, Alaa Islam Ayoub, Tamer Najim, Rabab Khamis, Mustafa Kullab, Ahmed Hassouna.
During the statement, the Palestinian Minister of Culture, Imad Hamdan, said that the nomination of “From Distance Zero” confirms the importance of Palestinian cinema and its role even in the darkest situations, because its creators were able to this work to record and narrate their human experiences. their stories under harsh and inhumane conditions.
Hamdan said that the ministry is working to fully support Palestinian creators to increase their presence on the international scene, stressing the importance of such interests in clarifying Palestinian identity and narrative around the world.
By selecting “From Distance Zero,” Palestine has submitted 17 films for production in the category of Best International Feature Film (previously foreign) from 2003 to the present.
Palestinian director and producer Rashid Masharawi expressed his happiness with the selection of “From Distance Zero,” and wrote on his account on the Facebook platform, “From Distance Zero represents Palestine at Oscar 2025. Enjoy the news on all female and male directors. “
It is worth noting that the campaign “From Distance Zero” was launched by Gaza filmmaker Rashid Masharawi after the intense and ongoing war against Gaza, and a group of filmmakers and institutions contributed to support these films, as the films were completed within 8 months between filming and editing.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Masharawi, a Palestinian filmmaker from Gaza, indicated that he had decided since the beginning of the war to be a bridge between filmmakers at home and in the world through what He inquired before and his relationship with the media, festivals and television channels.
Masharawi aims to express stories from Gaza that would be impossible for the world to see if they were not presented through the project, as well as news and projects, because films live for a long time because of their cinematic and artistic value.
He continued that he decided to launch the campaign on a large scale in conjunction with the war, which was different in shape and size, the number of victims and the amount of catastrophic losses.
He also revealed the problems they faced during the implementation of the project, which included that some of the workers lost relatives during filming, preparation, or during the writing stage, and that some of them were exposed to danger to reach a place with the Internet to send photo materials.
Source: Al Jazeera
