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Kaouther Making Tunisia Proud
Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania becomes the first Arab woman to win two Oscar nominations, as her documentary Four Daughters is nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2024 Academy Awards.
Tunisia’s nomination for Four Daughters will represent the country at the Academy Awards, and it has already achieved remarkable success, sharing the 2023 Cannes L’oeil d’Or (Golden Eye) medal for Best Documentary with Morocco’s entry, The Mother of All Lies.
All about the nominations
Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin was previously nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 2021 Academy Awards. Her recent nomination for Four Daughters sets a new precedent, making her the first Arab woman in the region to be nominated twice.
The Oscar-nominated director’s semi-documentary chronicles the sorrow of Olfa Hamrouni, played by Hend Sabri, as her daughters get radicalized and flee to join Daesh in Libya, with their mother and siblings portraying themselves. The star-studded cast includes Khaled Abol Naga, Ichraq Matar, and Majd Mastoura, among others.
Arab women taking over the world!
Kaouther Ben Hania joins the ranks of other female Arab filmmakers blazing a path to worldwide recognition. 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.
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