ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Sahim Omar Khalifa’s Baghdad Messi will be Iraq’s official entry in the 2025 Academy Awards, more commonly known as the Oscars.
The Iraqi culture ministry’s cinema and theater foundation said that the film was selected by an independent committee after meeting the requirements for the prestigious award.
Set in 2009 Baghdad, the film revolves around Hamoudi, a football-crazy 10-year-old from the war-torn capital who dreams of becoming a professional like his idol Lionel Messi. Things take a turn when the young boy is caught in the crossfire of an armed clash and loses his leg as a result.
“This story is very close to my heart. When I was in Kurdistan, football was very important to me,” the Kurdish director who is currently based in Belgium, told Rudaw English on Tuesday.
Khalifa first shot the story as a short film in 2012, before turning it into a feature-length film in 2021. The director said that he hoped making a feature-length film would help the story reach a broader audience.
“I wanted to highlight the importance of the magic of football. In a country torn apart by war and problems, football gave me hope and positivity,” he added.
Khalifa said that he hopes the film and Hamoudi’s unyielding attitude in the face of tragedy leave a lasting impression on the viewers and inspire them in their own lives.
Baghdad Messi will compete with hundreds of other films from around the world, out of which only five will be shortlisted as the final nominees contending for the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.
Iraq first submitted films for the Oscars in 2005 and has since submitted 12 other pictures. No film from Iraq has yet to score a nomination in the Best International Feature Film category.
Two of Khalifa’s short films have been previously among the final 10 films shortlisted for the Live Action Shorts category in the Oscars race: Baghdad Messi in 2014, and Bad Hunter in 2016. He is the only director from Iraq to achieve the feat.
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