Hany Abu-Assad
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Trailer Watch: Hany Abu-Assad’s The Idol
Two-time Academy Award nominated director Hany Abu-Assad follows up Paradise Now and Omar with The Idol, which now has a U.S. trailer. Inspired by the true story of Palestinian Mohammad Assaf, who was crowned Arab Idol champion in 2013, the film focuses on Assaf’s childhood in Gaza where he dreams of a successful musical career. The Idol, which premiered at TIFF 2015, was partially filmed on location in Gaza, the first feature to be shot there in decades. Adopt Films will release the film in New York on May 6 and nationwide on May 13.
by Paula Bernstein on Mar 10, 2016 -
The Luxury of Unhappiness: Director Hany Abu-Assad Talks Omar
In 2002, Palestine made its first Best Foreign Language Film submission to the Academy Awards. Despite accepting films from Puerto Rico, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did not accept their submission. But by the next year, the policy had changed: the Palestinian Ministry of Culture’s submission, Divine Intervention by Elia Suleiman, was accepted. Three years later, Hany Abu-Assad’s Paradise Now, the acclaimed and controversial story of two Palestinian men planning a suicide attack on Tel Aviv, was not only accepted as Palestine’s submission, it was also one of the final five nominees competing […]
by Livia Bloom Ingram on Feb 24, 2014 -
Good To Go: New York Film Festival II
Eclecticism governs the second half of the 51st NYFF just as it did the first. According to the Times, several common threads run through the week two batch, but these are little more than on-deadline segues. We could perhaps agree that all the films run at 24 frames per second. Below are recommendations I hope will sate the discerning ticket buyer. These are accomplished movies by directors who are not very well known in this country. Other films will sell out based on name recognition no matter the critical response, so, whether good, bad, or in-between, they will not be […]
by Howard Feinstein on Oct 2, 2013
