It’s been quite the year for 44-year-old Lebanese director Nadine Labaki. And with the nominations for the 91st Academy Awards revealed earlier this week, her celebratory streak seems to be endless.
A week after Capharnaum was nominated for the Golden Globes’ Best Picture Foreign Language category, the film has now also been shortlisted for the Oscars in the same category, making Labaki the first Arab female director to be nominated in the category.
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The director quickly took to her Instagram to mark the occasion. “What an incredible moment in our film’s journey and a major milestone for Lebanese and Arab cinema” she wrote. “After years of research, tears and sweat, long production hours and sleepless nights, our film has been recognized on this year’s Foreign Language #Oscar shortlist among eight other films from a selection that exceeded 80 submissions from all around the world. We couldn’t be prouder”.
The film was shortlisted alongside Colombia’s Birds of Passage, Denmark’s The Guilty, Germany’s Never Look Away, Japan’s Shoplifters, Kazakhstan’s Ayka, Mexico’s Roma Poland’s Cold War and South Korea’s Burning. Capharnaum is the second film from Lebanon to make its way to the Oscars, with Ziad Doueiri’s The Insult, becoming the first to score a nomination last year.
