Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania becomes first Arab woman to receive two Oscar nominations, as her documentary film Four Daughters is up for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2024 Academy Awards.
The nomination for Four Daughters will represent Tunisia for an Academy Award, and has already seen great success, sharing the 2023 Cannes’ L’oeil d’Or (Golden Eye) prize for Best Documentary with Morocco’s entry, The Mother of All Lies.
Kaouther Ben Hania was previously nominated for The Man Who Sold His Skin for Best International Feature Film at the 2021 awards. Her recent nomination for Four Daughters breaks new ground, making her the first Arab woman in the region to be nominated twice.
The Oscar-nominated director’s semi-documentary follows the anguish of Olfa Hamrouni, played by Hend Sabri, as her daughters become radicalized and run away to join Daesh in Libya, with their mother and siblings playing themselves. The film’s star-studded cast includes Khaled Abol Naga, Ichraq Matar, and Majd Mastoura among others.
Kaouther Ben Hania joins a list of other female Arab filmmakers blazing a trail for global success. Other female Arab directors who have received Oscar nominations in the past include the Palestinian filmmaker Farah Al Nabulsi, who was nominated in 2012 in the Best Short Film category for The Present, and Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki, nominated for Best International Feature Film in 2019 for Capernaum.
Looking for something new to watch in 2024? Find out about the UAE release of the highly-anicipated film The Color Purple here.