The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced their pre-selection of films in nine categories to advance in the run for a nomination for the 2020 Oscars.
Among the fifteen titles on the Documentary Feature shortlist, selected from a total of 159 titles, is Feras Fayyad's 'The Cave' from the Syrian war front, produced by Danish Documentary Production. The same company is co-producing Victor Kossakovsky's German-British-Danish 'Aquarela', also on the shortlist.
The five nominated films will be announced on 13 January, while the winner will be celebrated on Oscar night on 9 February.
The fifteen films are: 'Advocate', 'American Factory', 'The Apollo', 'Apollo 11', 'Aquarela', 'The Biggest Little Farm', 'The Cave', 'The Edge of Democracy', 'For Sama', 'The Great Hack', 'Honeyland', 'Knock Down the House', 'Maiden', 'Midnight Family', 'One Child Nation'.
Three nominations at Cinema Eye Honors
'The Cave' picked up the Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award at the Toronto Film Festival and has also been honoured at festivals such as Camden, Jihlava and Valladolid.
The Cave
For the besieged Syrian civilians, hope and safety lie underground, inside the subterranean hospital known as the Cave, where pediatrician and managing physician Dr. Amani Ballour and her colleagues Samaher and Dr. Alaa have claimed their right to work as equals alongside their male counterparts, doing their jobs in a way that would be unthinkable in the oppressively patriarchal culture that exists above.
The film about Dr. Amani and her staff in an underground field hospital in the Syrian province of Ghouta is nominated in three categories at the Cinema Eye Honors Awards in January. Dr. Amani Ballour is also among this year's "Unforgettables", a noteworthy documentary subject to be celebrated at the awards show in New York.
Fayyad's 'Last Men in Aleppo' received an Oscar nomination in 2018 and was honoured with a great number of accolades, including top awards at Sundance and CPH:DOX.
'The Cave' is produced by Kirstine Barfod and Sigrid Dyekjær for Danish Documentary Production with support from the Danish Film Institute, TV 2 Denmark, National Geographic, IMS International Media Support, Doha Film Institute, SWR, Yun Sat Yen Foundation, Docs Up Fund and Normandie for Peace.
Danish films and the Oscars
'Land of Mine' was Oscar-nominated in 2017 in the international category, while Feras Fayyad's 'Last Men in Aleppo' received a nomination in 2018 in the documentary catory.
Danish films have won the international feature film Oscar three times – Susanne Bier's 'In a Better World' in 2011, Bille August's 'Pelle the Conqueror' in 1989 and Gabriel Axel's 'Babette's Feast' in 1988.