Every year, the Academy invites countries to choose their best film and to submit it for a possible nomination to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. And every year we include one or more of such official submissions in our festival.
This year we continue the tradition by showing three films officially submitted to the Oscars by their respective countries.
The first we are thrilled to announce is Baghdad Messi by Sahim Omar Kalifa – Iraq’s official entry to the 2024 Academy Awards.
11 year-old Hamoudi lives for football and his dream of being as outstanding as his hero Lionel Messi. One day, when he is unintentionally involved in an attack, he wakes up in hospital with only one leg. While his parents do everything to keep the family safe, Hamoudi fights to achieve his dream in spite of everything.
Baghdad Messi is screening in San Francisco on Oct. 25th, and will also stream online as part of our virtual programming. Get your tickets today. You can also browse the full festival program here.
Written & Directed by SAHIM OMAR KALIFA
Starring ATHEER ADEL, ZAHRAA GHANDOUR, AHMED MOHAMMED ADULLAH
Run Time: 88 minutes
Year: 2023
Country: Iraq
Language: Arabic
About the Director, Sahim Omar Kalifa
SHANGHAI, CHINA – JUNE 11: Director Sahim Omar Kalifa attends the screening of film ‘Baghdad Messi’ during the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival on June 11, 2023 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
Sahim Omar Kalifa who was born in 1980 in Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan, is a Belgian-Kurdish filmmaker based in Belgium.
In 2001, he came to Belgium, and in 2008 he got his Master’s degree in filmmaking at Sint-Lukas Film School, Brussels. With his short film Nan, Kalifa won the Best Flemish Student Film at the Leuven International Short Film Festival.
Kalifa has won more than 100 international awards for his short films Land of the Heroes, Baghdad Messi, and Bad Hunter. In May 2016, Sahim started filming his first feature film Zagros, supported by Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds (VAF), Dutch Film Fund and Eurimages.
His documentary film Iraq’s Invisible Beauty tells the story of the late Iraqi photographer Latif al-Ani and his photographic documentation of Iraq between the 1950s and 1970s.
Baghdad Messi is screening in San Francisco on Oct. 25th, and will also stream online as part of our virtual programming. Get your tickets today. You can also browse the full festival program here.
Read more about our Opening Night film, Life is Beautiful: A Letter to Gaza on our blog and get Opening Night tickets on our festival site.
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