3000 Nights Jordan's Official Submission for the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film Category

Back to Press Releases

Ahead of Its Participation in the Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden and Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia

3000 Nights Jordan's Official Submission for the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film Category


Adding more achievements to its cabinet, winning eight international awards, 3000 Nights film has been selected by The Royal Film Commission-Jordan to represent Jordan at the Academy Awards within the Best Foreign-Language Film Category. The competing films considered for this category will be narrowed down and the shortlisted films will be announced in the beginning of next December. The shortlist will be further whittled down to the official nominees that will be revealed in January 2017 ahead of the award ceremony that is slated to take place in February.

The film was selected by an independent committee assigned by the Royal Film Commission - Jordan, the official entity to submit Jordan's official submission to the Academy Award's Best Foreign-language Film Category. Comprised of Jordanian actors and filmmakers, the committee was headed by Adnan Awamleh, Founder of the Arab Telemedia Group. The members included: Mounir Nassar, former Minister of Tourism and member of the Executive Board of the Jordan Inbound Tour Operators Association; actors Zuhair Al Nobani and Nabil Sawalha; Journalist and Film Critic Nageh Hassan; Casting Director Lara Atalla; and Samar Dudin, Regional Director and Head of Programs at Ruwwad.

This month, 3000 Nights will compete in the Feature Competition in the Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden (30 September - 5 October). The film will also compete in the 27th Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia (28 October - 5 November) within the Official Feature Film Competition. Back in 2010, the film won the Carthage Film Festival Grant Award for Best Script during its pre-production phase.

The film won eight awards: the TaoEdu Young Prize at Taormina Film Festival in Italy, the Youth Jury Award at the International Film Festival and Forum for Human Rights, Switzerland, and the Audience Award at The Annonay International Film Festival in France. The film also won the Special Jury Award at Washington, DC International Film Festival (Filmfest DC), the Jury Award at the 8th Women's International Film and Television Showcase (The WIFTS), USA, the Meeting Point Audience Award at the 60th Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain, as well as the Youth Jury Award and the Women's Jury Award at the Paysages des Cineastes in France.

The film's world premiere was held at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it was also screened in the US within at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in California. The film competed also at Busan International Film Festival in South Korea and had a series of full-house screenings at BFI London Film Festival and Rotterdam Arab Film Festival.

3000 Nights is a co-production between Jordan, Palestine, France, UAE, Qatar and Lebanon. MAD Solutions is in charge of the distribution of the film in the Arab world.

3000 Nights tells the story of a young Palestinian school teacher who gives birth to her son in an Israeli prison, where she fights to protect him, survive and maintain hope. The film stars Maisa Abdelhadi, Nadera Omran, Raida Adon, Rakeen Saad, Abeer Haddad, Anahid Fayad, Haifa Al Agha, Khitam Edelbi and Hana Chamoun.

Mai Masri is a Palestinian filmmaker. She studied film at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University (USA) where she graduated with a BA degree. Her rich and extensive filmography includes many documentaries focusing on the humanity and resilience of ordinary people characterized with humanistic elements, through which she won over 60 awards at international film festivals, such as Under the Rubble (1983), Wild Flowers: Women of South Lebanon (1986), War Generation Beirut (1998), Children of Fire (1990), Suspended Dreams (1992), Children of Shatila (1998), Hanan Ashrawi: A Woman of her Time (1995), Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (2001), Beirut Diaries: Truth, Lies and Videos (2006) and 33 Days (2007).