A Drowning Man and BONBONE Shortlisted for the Oscars

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Coinciding with Their Release on Amazon Prime

A Drowning Man and BONBONE Shortlisted for the Oscars


The two short films A Drowning Man, directed by Mahdi Fleifel, and BONBONÉ, directed by Rakan Mayasi, have taken a long tour across international film festivals where they have won tens of awards. This success has made the two films eligible for the primary admission requirements of the 91st Academy Awards, which will announce its final nominations in January.

A Drowning Man competed at the BAFTA Awards for Best British Short Film. It won the Best Muhr Short Film award at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF). At the same time, BONBONÉ won ten awards at international festivals; the most recent of which was the Best Short Film award at Elia Short Film Festival.

All of this coincides with their release on Amazon Prime in the United States and the United Kingdom through the following links:

A DROWNING MAN
US: https://amzn.to/2AEWFjk
UK: https://amzn.to/2yJsGWa

BONBONÉ
UK: https://amzn.to/2DiycDl
US: https://amzn.to/2Q9HPqs

About A Drowning Man:

A Drowning Man revolves around the life of a Palestinian young man, surrounded by predators in Athens' harsh streets. Hence, He is forced to make compromises merely to survive, and his life of exile grows one day longer.

Written and directed by Mahdi Fleifel, A Drowning Man stars Atef Alshafei, Jalal Qaniry, Mounir Al khateeb, Rebih El-Saleous, and Thymios Koukios. The film is produced by Final Cut for Real, Nakba Film Works and distributed through the Arab world by MAD Solutions, while Salaud Morisset is handling the film's world sales.

The film made its world premiere at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival as the only Arab participation in the Short Films competition and participated in the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), within its Short Cuts competition, Melbourne International Film Festival and the Odense International Film Festival. The film won the Silver Spike Award for Best Short Film at the Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain, the Karama Beirut Human Rights Film Festival in Lebanon and Festival Ciné-Palestine (FCP) in Paris, France. A Drowning Man received the Jurys' Special Mention at the Gabes Film Festival in Tunisia, and a Special Mention at the Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts in Egypt.

About BONBONÉ

In less than 16 minutes, BONBONÉ follows a Palestinian inmate serving time in an Israeli jail receives a visit from his wife who devises a bold and crafty operation to fulfill their secret desires.

Written and directed by Rakan Mayasi, BONBONÉ stars Saleh Bakri, Rana Alamuddin and features Nadira Omran. BONBONÉ is produced by Groundglass235 in co-production with The Postoffice and Mad4Films, and in association with db Studios. MAD Solutions is responsible for distributing the film across the Arab world and Salaud Morisset is responsible of international sales.

The film won the Best Director Award within the North Carolina Awards in the US and the two Awards of the Best Film and Script at the Bajo la Luna International Film Festival in Spain, the two Jury and Audience Awards for the Best Short Film at the 4th edition of the Palestinian Film Festival in Paris, the Best Short Film Award at the Almería International Short Film Festival in Spain, the Moscow International Film Festival, the Gabes Film Festival, and the Golden Eagle Award at the Kustendorf International Film and Music Festival in Serbia. The film has partaken in several international festivals, including the Dubai International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, the Cork Film Festival in Ireland, and Stockholms film festival in Sweden. BONBONÉ landed its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).