For Sama, a Syrian documentary shot over five years from inside besieged Aleppo, has received four nominations for this year's EE British Academy Film Awards.
The film has been nominated in four categories: Documentary, Outstanding British Film, Film Not in English Language and Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.
The nominations continue a golden run for the film, which was awarded the Prix L'Oeil d'Or for Best Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. It also took home four trophies at the British Independent Film Awards in December, including the award for best British Independent Film.
For Sama, made by Emmy award-winning filmmakers Waad Al Kateab and Edward Watts, follows the intimate and epic journey of Al Kateab through five years of her life in the rebel-held city as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to her first daughter, Sama.
The film was constructed using footage entirely drawn from Al Kateab’s extraordinary archive.
Al Kateab began filming using a mobile phone after it became clear the peaceful protests she was taking part in with fellow students from the University of Aleppo were being denied by the regime. She told The National in May that her footage was "very big evidence that the people who are there are Syrians and not, as the regime was saying, all strangers and terrorists".
Last month, British actress Emilia Clarke showed her support for the documentary, asking fans to watch the film.
The rest of the Bafta nods
Joker leads this year's nominations with 11, followed by the Netflix crime-drama The Irishman and Quentin Tarantino's ode to 1970s Los Angeles, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, both of which received 10 nominations. All three films are in contention for the Best Film award, along with First World War epic 1917 and South Korean hit and Golden Globe winner Parasite.
Joaquin Phoenix is in the running for Best Actor award for his portrayal of the Joker. He will be competing against Taro Egerton, who played Sir Elton John in Rocketman, Jonathan Pryce who starred in The Two Popes, Leonardo DiCaprio for his work in Once Upon a Time… and Adam Driver for his role in the Netflix drama Marriage Story.
Margot Robbie is competing against herself after she received two nominations in the Best Supporting Actress category for her roles in Bombshell and Once Upon a Time… and Scarlett Johansson also has two nominations, one for Jojo Rabbit in the same category, and another for Best Actress for her role in Marriage Story.
Other Best Actress nominees include Renee Zellweger for Judy, Jessie Buckley for Wild Rose, Charlize Theron for Bombshell, and Saoirse Ronan for Little Women.
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl) is in the running for the British Short Film award. The 40-minute documentary follows the story of young Afghan girls as they learn to read, write and skateboard in Kabul over the course of a school year. The film won the IDA (International Documentary Association) award for best short documentary and has been shortlisted for this year's Oscars.
The awards ceremony, which will take place on Sunday, February 2, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, will be hosted by Irish comedian and television presenter Graham Norton.
Here are the full nominations for the Baftas 2020:
Best Film
1917
The Irishman
Joker
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Parasite
Best British Film
1917
Bait
For Sama
Rocketman
Sorry We Missed You
The Two Popes
Outstanding Debut by a British writer, Director or Producer
Bait, Mark Jenkin (writer/director), Kate Byers, Linn Waite (producers)
For Sama, Waad Al Kateab (director/producer), Edward Watts (director)
Maiden, Alex Holmes (director)
Only You, Harry Wootliff (writer/director)
Retablo, Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio (writer/director)
Film not in the English Language
The Farewell
For Sama
Pain and Glory
Parasite
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Best Documentary
American Factory
Apollo 11
Diego Maradona
For Sama
The Great Hack
Best Animated Film
Frozen II
Klaus
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Toy Story 4
Best Director
Sam Mendes for 1917
Martin Scorsese for The Irishman
Todd Phillips for Joker
Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Bong Joon-ho for Parasite
Best Original Screenplay
Booksmart, Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Katie Silberman
Knives Out, Rian Johnson
Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino
Parasite, Han Jin Won, Bong Joon-ho,
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Irishman, Steven Zaillian
Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi
Joker, Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
Little Women, Greta Gerwig
The Two Popes, Anthony McCarten
Best Actress
Jessie Buckley for Wild Rose
Scarlett Johansson for Marriage Story
Saoirse Ronan for Little Women
Charlize Theron for Bombshell
Renee Zellweger for Judy
Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio for Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Adam Driver for Marriage Story
Taron Egerton for Rocketman
Joaquin Phoenix for Joker
Jonathan Pryce for The Two Popes
Best Supporting Actress
Laura Dern for Marriage Story
Scarlett Johansson for Jojo Rabbit
Florence Pugh for Little Women
Margot Robbie for Bombshell
Margot Robbie for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Best Supporting Actor
Tom Hanks for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Anthony Hopkins for The Two Popes
Al Pacino for The Irishman
Joe Pesci for The Irishman
Brad Pitt for Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Best Score
1917
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Best Casting (for the first time)
Joker
Marriage Story
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
The Personal History of David Copperfield
The Two Popes
Best Cinematography
1917
The Irishman
Joker
Le Mans ’66
The Lighthouse
Best Editing
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Le Mans ’66
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Best Production Design
1917
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Best Costume Design
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Judy
Little Women
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Best Make-up & Hair
1917
Bombshell
Joker
Judy
Rocketman
Best Sound
1917
Joker
Le Mans ’66
Rocketman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Best Special Visual Effects
1917
Avengers: Endgame
The Irishman
The Lion King
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Best British Short Animation
Grandad Was a Romantic
In Her Boots
The Magic Boat
Best British Short Film
Azaar
Goldfish
Kamali
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)
The Trap
EE Rising Star Award (voted for by the public)
Awkwafina
Jack Lowden
Kaitlyn Dever
Kelvin Harrison Jr
Micheal Ward
Bafta Fellowship
Kathleen Kennedy
RESULTS
Women:
55kg brown-black belt: Amal Amjahid (BEL) bt Amanda Monteiro (BRA) via choke
62kg brown-black belt: Bianca Basilio (BRA) bt Ffion Davies (GBR) via referee’s decision (0-0, 2-2 adv)
70kg brown-black belt: Ana Carolina Vieira (BRA) bt Jessica Swanson (USA), 9-0
90kg brown-black belt: Angelica Galvao (USA) bt Marta Szarecka (POL) 8-2
Men:
62kg black belt: Joao Miyao (BRA) bt Wan Ki-chae (KOR), 7-2
69kg black belt: Paulo Miyao (BRA) bt Gianni Grippo (USA), 2-2 (1-0 adv)
77kg black belt: Espen Mathiesen (NOR) bt Jake Mackenzie (CAN)
85kg black belt: Isaque Braz (BRA) bt Faisal Al Ketbi (UAE), 2-0
94kg black belt: Felipe Pena (BRA) bt Adam Wardzinski (POL), 4-0
110kg black belt final: Erberth Santos (BRA) bt Lucio Rodrigues (GBR) via rear naked choke
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
'Midnights'
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UAE SQUAD
Mohammed Naveed (captain), Mohamed Usman (vice captain), Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Imran Haider, Tahir Mughal, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed, Fahad Nawaz, Abdul Shakoor, Sultan Ahmed, CP Rizwan
Paris Can Wait
Dir: Eleanor Coppola
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Diane Lane, Arnaud Viard
Two stars
PROFILE OF STARZPLAY
Date started: 2014
Founders: Maaz Sheikh, Danny Bates
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment/Streaming Video On Demand
Number of employees: 125
Investors/Investment amount: $125 million. Major investors include Starz/Lionsgate, State Street, SEQ and Delta Partners
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Match info:
Real Betis v Sevilla, 10.45pm (UAE)
Company profile
Name: Fruitful Day
Founders: Marie-Christine Luijckx, Lyla Dalal AlRawi, Lindsey Fournie
Based: Dubai, UAE
Founded: 2015
Number of employees: 30
Sector: F&B
Funding so far: Dh3 million
Future funding plans: None at present
Future markets: Saudi Arabia, potentially Kuwait and other GCC countries
The biog
Favourite hobby: taking his rescue dog, Sally, for long walks.
Favourite book: anything by Stephen King, although he said the films rarely match the quality of the books
Favourite film: The Shawshank Redemption stands out as his favourite movie, a classic King novella
Favourite music: “I have a wide and varied music taste, so it would be unfair to pick a single song from blues to rock as a favourite"
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
HOW TO WATCH
Facebook: TheNationalNews
Twitter: @thenationalnews
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TikTok: @thenationalnews
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Dr Amal Khalid Alias revealed a recent case of a woman with daughters, who specifically wanted a boy.
A semen analysis of the father showed abnormal sperm so the couple required IVF.
Out of 21 eggs collected, six were unused leaving 15 suitable for IVF.
A specific procedure was used, called intracytoplasmic sperm injection where a single sperm cell is inserted into the egg.
On day three of the process, 14 embryos were biopsied for gender selection.
The next day, a pre-implantation genetic report revealed four normal male embryos, three female and seven abnormal samples.
Day five of the treatment saw two male embryos transferred to the patient.
The woman recorded a positive pregnancy test two weeks later.
