VOY! VOY! VOY!, HANGING GARDENS, FOUR DAUGHTERS
Film Clinic and its distribution arm, Film Clinic Indie Distribution, achieved a remarkable feat once again, with three titles from their production and distribution roster selected by their respective countries of origin — Egypt, Iraq, and Tunisia — to be their official submissions for Best Foreign Film at the 96th Academy Awards.
VOY! VOY! VOY!, was chosen by a majority vote of Egypt’s Film Selection Committee to represent the country at the Oscars. The film was recently released in theaters across Egypt and the Arab World to immediate widespread acclaim and media attention, with audiences and critics taking to their social media platforms to discuss the instantly trending film.
The second film is Ahmed Yassin Al-Daradji’s Hanging Gardens, which was chosen by the Iraqi Film and Theater Department to represent Iraq at the Academy Awards.
Hanging Gardens had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year, where it was awarded the Fondazione Fai Persona Lavoro Ambiente Award and has since won many awards, including the Golden Yusr for Best Feature Film — the top prize of the Red Sea International Film Festival’s Main Competition. It’s a Film Clinic co-production and distributed by Film Clinic Indie Distribution in the Arab world.
The third Film Clinic submission is none other than the talented Kaouther Ben Hania’s FOUR DAUGHTERS, which was selected by the Tunisian Ministry of Culture.
FOUR DAUGHTERS seamlessly blends documentary and drama, showcasing the remarkable presence of legendary actress Hend Sabry. The film was also the sole Arab contender for the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, garnering immense acclaim and significant media attention.
Previously, Kaouther Ben Hania’s THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN set a similar significant milestone, securing a spot on the shortlist for the 2021 Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category, making it the first Tunisian film — and the first film distributed by Film ClinicIndie Distribution — to be nominated in the Academy Awards.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is expected to announce the preliminary list of films competing for the award in December 2023, followed by the shortlist in January 2024, while the 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10th, 2024 at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles.
Film Clinic has a remarkable track record for getting its films submitted to the Oscars. In 2020 Film Clinic’s lineup included the submissions of five Arab countries. Including; BARAKA MEETS BARAKA (Saudi Arabia | 2017), CLASH (Egypt | 2017), SHEIKH JACKSON (Egypt | 2018), YOMEDDINE (Egypt | 2019), POISONOUS ROSES (Egypt | 2020), WHEN WE’RE BORN (Egypt | 2021), 200 METERS (Jordan | 2021), YOU WILL DIE AT TWENTY (Sudan | 2021), and COSTA BRAVA (Lebanon | 2022).
About VOY! VOY! VOY!
VOY! VOY! VOY! tells the story of Hassan, a security guard living an impoverished life with his mother who dreams of traveling and living abroad. One day he stumbles on the sport of blind football and cunningly decides to pose as a visually impaired man to join a team close to playing a World Cup tournament in Europe.
On this journey, he crosses paths with several characters — an attractive young journalist who starts to take an interest in the team as he takes an interest in her, a middle-aged coach looking for an opportunity, and his two best friends.
With them in tow, Hassan goes to unimaginable lengths to not miss out on Europe, hoping that this will provide a ticket to the team to a life with more opportunity.
VOY! VOY! VOY! is produced by Mohamed Hefzy and written and directed by Omar Hilal, marking his cinematic debut and transition from the world of advertisements to movies
The film features an ensemble cast of established and emerging movie stars, including Farrag, Bayoumi Fouad, Desouki, El-Haggar, Hanan Youssef, Mohamed Abdel-Azim, and Hagag Abdel-Azim, alongside headliner Nelly Karim with a special appearance by Passant Shawky.
About HANGING GARDENS
HANGING GARDENS follows Assad — a 12-year-old garbage collector who adopts an American sex doll from the Baghdad dumps, crossing into a perilous red zone and finding himself caught in the crossfire between abusive forces of commercialism and fundamentalism in a world where defenders of humanism have lost their power. He embraces the courage it takes to not just survive, but live.
The film is distributed in the Arab world by Film Clinic Indie Distribution, which was established by scriptwriter and producer Mohamed Hefzy, who also co-produced the film with Huda Al-Kadhimi, Margaret Glover, and May Odeh. The film has a star-studded cast including Wissam Diyaa, Jawad Al-Shakarji, Hussain Muhammad Jalil, and Akram Mazen Ali.
When it was still in the project phase, HANGING GARDENS received the Post-Production Award at Venice’s Final Cut. It also won the Mercury award during its participation at CineGounaSpringBoard in 2021.
About FOUR DAUGHTERS
Kaouther Ben Hania’s second film, FOUR DAUGHTERS, follows the life of Olfa — a Tunisian woman and mother of four daughters who oscillates between light and shadow.
One day, her two eldest daughters disappear. To fill their absence, director Kaouther Ben Hania calls upon professional actors and sets up an extraordinary film mechanism to unveil the story of Olfa and her daughters.
FOUR DAUGHTERS is an intimate journey full of hope, rebellion, violence, intergenerational transmission, and sisterhood that questions the very foundation of our societies.
About Flim Clinic
Film Clinic was founded in 2005 by producer and screenwriter Mohamed Hefzy with the mission to support creative up-and-coming talents with the best expertise in the film industry. With a track record of over 40 films varying from commercial blockbusters to award-winning art-house films, Film Clinic has been giving a voice to filmmakers both locally and internationally since its inception.
About Film Clinic Indie Distribution
In 2017, Film Clinic set up its own distribution arm, Film Clinic Indie Distribution, to financially support and distribute the work of the most talented and up-and-coming Arab filmmakers as well as handling sales for its own productions.
