Senegal Entry, Dahomey, Drops Off Oscar Race
Senegal, and indeed, Africa’s only entry in the best international feature category of the Academy award, otherwise called the Oscars, Dahomey, by Mati Diop has lost out of the 2025 Oscar nominations announced during the week. The documentary, which made the first leg on nomination, lost out of the final leg of nomination. Dahomey’s success at the first leg of the nominations marked the second time French-Senegalese director, Diop, has been chosen for the Oscars after her debut feature Atlantics, which made it as far as the shortlist in 2019 after winning the grand prix at Cannes. Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2024 edition of the Berlinale, Dahomey tells the story of 26 royal artefacts stolen by French colonial troops in 1892, which were sent from Paris back to what is now the Republic of Benin in 2021. Using multiple perspectives Diop questions how these artefacts should be received in a country that has reinvented itself in their absence. Films that did not advance from the 15-strong International Feature shortlist include Universal Language (Canada), Waves (Czech Republic), Touch (Iceland) Kneecap (Ireland) and from Ground Zero (Palestine). A leading contender for the best international feature category is Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard produced by Netflix. The audacious musical melodrama also polled 12 other nominations including best picture, director and actress. Other films that made it to this stage include, I am Still Here (Brazil), The Girl With The Needle (Denmark), The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany) and Flow (Latvia). The Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. The red-carpet portion of the show will start airing at 6:30 pm ET, though the show itself is set to begin a half-hour later

2025 Oscar Nominations: 31 Nominations, 8 Films From The Official Selection Of The Festival De Cannes
THE Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled the nominees for its 97th ceremony to be held on March 2, 2025 in Los Angeles. The Festival de Cannes is delighted to see that eight films from its Official Selection made the shortlist, across 17 categories and totalling 31 nominations. Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, winner of the 2024 Jury Prize and Best Performance by an Actress Award, leads the ways with 13 nominations, a record for a non-English-language film. Sean Baker’s Anora, winner of the Palme d’or at the 77th Festival de Cannes, totals six nominations. Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, which won Best Screenplay Award in Cannes, received five Oscar nominations. Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice and Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow each received two Oscar nominations. Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, winner of the Jury Special Prize, received one Oscar nomination, as did Nebojša Slijepcevic’s The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, winner of the Short Film Palme d’or, and Magnus Von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle. No doubt, Cannes Festival Director Thierry Frémaux will be all smiles as four of the movies nominated in the International Feature Oscar race started their careers on the Riviera last May. The Festival de Cannes has issued a statement to congratulate all the nominees whilst also wishing them the success they deserve at the 97th Academy Award ceremony.

Programme Of Berlinale Special Is Complete With Further Galas Added
THE final nine titles have been added to the Berlinale Special programme. Four of them will be screened as Berlinale Special Gala: Lucio Castro’s After This Death, A Complete Unknown by James Mangold, Heldin (Late Shift) by Petra Volpe and Alex Russell’s Lurker. There is also Das Deutsche Volk by Marcin Wierzchowski, Burhan Qurbani’s Kein Tier. So Wild. (No Beast. So Fierce.), Leibniz – Chronik eines verschollenen Bildes (Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting) by Edgar Reitz and Anatol Schuster, Michtav Le’David (A Letter to David) by Tom Shoval as well as Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow as Berlinale Special. Thus, this year‘s Berlinale Special comprises a total of 21 films from 16 countries, among them four documentary forms, 16 feature films and one series. 15 are world premieres. The programme is complemented by a screening of Peter Wollen’s Friendship’s Death in honour of Tilda Swinton, the 2025 Honorary Golden Bear award winner. “Berlinale Special is one of the most varied sections of the festival, and we take a great deal of care in thinking about different audiences when we make our selections. There are delicious popular forms – from genre films to those that harness the star power and charisma of well-known talents. Likewise there are ‘talking-point’ documentary and fiction films that invite dialogue on issues such as the global health care crisis, or ask us to reflect on the importance of memory as a guard against violence and hate. Berlinale Special is an invitation to our many diverse audiences to experience the pleasures and provocations cinema can offer,” says Festival Director Tricia Tuttle. Berlinale opens from February 13 to 23, 2025.