Oscars: Senegal Picks ‘Dahomey’ for Best International Feature Category
French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop’s Dahomey documentary, which earned the Golden Bear prize at the Berlin Film Festival, has been chosen to represent Senegal in the best international feature category at the Academy Awards.
The film tracks the return of 26 royal African treasures looted in the 19th century by France from the Kingdom of Dahomey and are due to return to the present-day Republic of Benin as part of reparations. The Kingdom of Dahomey was seen in Viola Davis’ historical epic The Woman King.
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“The director’s own path as a cultural revenant continues to be inextricably woven through her work, alongside a contemplative consideration of repatriation and reparations, in her multifaceted medium-length docu-fictional essay Dahomey,” The Hollywood Reporter said in its review of Dahomey from Berlin.
Diop, who wrote and directed Dahomey, asks what the cultural significance of a restitution of works of art can be when handed back by France to Benin.
The feature documentary had a world premiere in Berlin and will now screen at the Toronto Film Festival and the New York Film Festival, before hitting theatres on Oct. 18.
Diop received her top Golden Bear prize from Berlin jury president and Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actor Lupita Nyong’o, who was the first Black and first African to chair the Berlinale jury. Diop shares producer credits on Dahomey with Eve Robin and Judith Lou Lévy.
The deadline for submissions for the 96th Oscars is Nov. 14, 2024. The shortlist for best international feature contenders will be announced Dec. 17. Nominations will be announced Jan. 17, 2025. The 2025 Academy Awards will be held Sunday, March 2.
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