Arab filmmakers have been sending out a number of submissions for Oscars every year, but not all of them have made the cut. In one such, Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri’s latest film The Insult bagged a nomination for Oscars at the 90th Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Starring Adel Karam, Kamel El Basha and Rita Hayek in lead roles, the film is Zoueiri’s second submission to the Oscars, but the first to be nominated. Also the first Lebanese film to be nominated for the Oscar, Doueiri’s The Insult shares nominations with four other films from Chile, Russia, Hungary and Sweden. At the 74th Venice International Film Festival Kamel El Basha took home the Coppa Volpi for best actor. The West Beirut-director had a rough road to get his film to the best foreign language film category. In September 2017, after The Insult premiered at the 74th Venice International Film Festival, Doueiri was arrested for shooting parts of his 2012 film The Attack in Israel—where Lebanese citizens are refrained entry owing to the war between the two countries. Following the incident, the movie was banned in Jordan and Palestine. Later, he was released with all charges dropped. Filmmakers of Arab origin have slowly edged their way into Oscars over the last years. Some of them include Hany Abu-Assad directorial Paradise Now which was nominated for the 78th Academy Awards while his 2013-film Omar was picked up for the 86th Academy Awards in the best foreign language film category. However, both were unable to take the trophy home. From Jordan, Theeb was nominated for the same category in 2014, making it the first Jordanian nomination for the Academy Awards ever. All eyes will be on the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the 90th Academy Awards that will air live on March 4, 2018, hosted by returning-host Jimmy Kimmel.

Ziad Doueiri’s The Insult (Cohen Media Group) was a big hit with the Foreign Language committee. The Franco-Lebanese director did not have an easy time getting to this stage, however. After winning the Best Actor Volpi Cup for The Insult’s lead Kamel El Basha in Venice, Doueiri returned to Lebanon and was promptly detained, his passports confiscated and his presence required at a military tribunal. The focus of the inquest was his having shot part of his previous film, The Attack, in Israel. The incident, while quickly resolved, brought international attention to Doueiri and The Insult. Since then, Lebanon has continued to be in the news over censorship issues, recently banning Steven Spielberg’s The Post only to overturn the decision a few days later. The Insult is the first film from Lebanon to score an FL nomination. It centers on the story of an insult blown out of proportion that lands two men, one a Lebanese Christian, the other a Palestinian refugee, in court. Doueiri previously told me there was a certain gratification to having The Insult selected as Lebanon’s Oscar entry, particularly after The Attack was banned in 22 Arab countries, including Lebanon. Today, he says the nomination “gives you some sort of redemption and comfort.” What the film “accomplished today is phenomenal,” he adds, noting, “It’s not me, it’s all of us. I’m so happy we are winning a battle on an international scene.”