UPDATED with assertion from Jordan’s Royal Movie Fee, confirming particulars of this story: The RFC writes to Deadline, “Jordan withdrew its submission of ‘My Candy Land‘ documentary movie because of diplomatic pressures. The Royal Movie Fee – Jordan (RFC) stays dedicated to showcasing and selling all Jordanian movies, together with their participation in movie festivals.”
Beforehand: EXCLUSIVE: Jordan has withdrawn Sareen Hairabedian’s documentary My Candy Land as its official entry for Finest Worldwide Characteristic Movie on the 97th Academy Awards, reportedly after coming below strain from Azerbaijan, Deadline has discovered.
The award-winning documentary follows 11-year-old Vrej, who desires of turning into a dentist in his village in Artsakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave inside Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been on the coronary heart of a violent dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia because the Nineteen Eighties. Artsakh fought for many years to grow to be a breakaway state, an independence motion that ended with the Azerbaijani offensive of 2023.
The selection of the movie by Jordan sparked controversy in Azerbaijan the place its sympathetic account of the Armenians displaced by the battle was seen as taking an overtly anti-Azerbaijani stance.
Deadline understands the Azerbaijan authorities wrote to Jordan’s International Ministry requesting it rethink the movie’s choice as its Oscar entry, which in flip put strain on the Jordan’s Royal Movie Fee to withdraw the movie.
Sources on the Academy of Movement Image Arts & Sciences verify Jordan withdrew My Candy Land for consideration as Finest Worldwide Characteristic Movie. This leaves Jordan with out an entry in that class for the 97th Academy Awards.
Director Sareen Hairabedian and producer Azza Hourani inform Deadline solely, “That is very devastating information for our staff that an emotional intimate story of a kid’s love for his residence and household was banned and silenced. As documentary filmmakers, this censorship compels us greater than ever to share My Candy Land protagonist Vrej’s story, which displays the experiences of numerous youngsters around the globe in the present day, who should dream freely with out the specter of conflict and battle.”
After Jordan withdrew the movie as a contender for Finest Worldwide Characteristic Movie, the Academy instructed filmmakers they might submit My Candy Land for consideration as Finest Documentary Characteristic, in the event that they adopted normal qualification procedures. The filmmaking staff has scrambled to rearrange a qualifying run within the U.S.
‘My Candy Land’
HAI Inventive LLC/Sister Productions/Soilsíu Movies
“My Candy Land may have its North American premiere at DOC NYC on November sixteenth and seventeenth, and our qualifying theatrical launch will happen at Laemmle Theatres [in Los Angeles] beginning November 29th,” Hairabedian and Hourani inform us. “We stay dedicated to sharing our truthful story, undeterred by the obstacles we face.”
The transfer to withdraw the movie from the Worldwide Characteristic Movie class comes amid rising diplomatic and financial ties between Jordan and Azerbaijan, with Azerbaijani International Minister Jeyhun Bayramov receiving Jordanian officers in Baku in 2024 to debate additional ongoing cooperation.
“Our understanding was that Jordan withdrew the movie with a view to protect diplomatic ties between Jordan and Azerbaijan after a grievance from the latter,” the filmmakers say. “We additionally discovered that after My Candy Land’s premiere in Jordan on the Amman Worldwide Movie Pageant, Azerbaijan’s embassy had additionally filed a grievance in opposition to screening the movie publicly. So, My Candy Land, a movie that was celebrated weeks prior on the competition, was all of the sudden banned in certainly one of its residence nations.”
Jordan’s Royal Movie Fee is the governing physique of the Amman Worldwide Movie Pageant. At that occasion in July 2024, My Candy Land received three prizes: Jury Award for Finest Arab Documentary, the Viewers Award and the Worldwide Movie Critics Award (FIPRESCI). The documentary premiered in June at Sheffield DocFest, essentially the most prestigious nonfiction competition within the U.Ok., the place it was nominated for the Worldwide First Characteristic Award.
In an electronic mail to Deadline on Saturday, the Royal Movie Fee highlighted the awards earned by My Candy Land on the Amman Worldwide Movie Pageant and famous the movie “obtained improvement funding from the RFC’s Jordan Movie Fund in 2021.”
‘My Candy Land’
HAI Inventive LLC/Sister Productions/Soilsíu Movies
Sheffield DocFest programmers wrote of the movie, “Vrej, the topic of Sareen Hairabedian’s spectacular function debut – a putting coming-of-age story – has grown up in Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan. For the reason that finish of the Soviet period it has witnessed a lot battle. The 11-year-old watches birds, performs with associates and desires of being a dentist. However echoes of the three wars his household have lived by way of since 1992 are ever-present. His grandmother laments the cycle of ethnic violence: ‘Dwelling in Artsakh signifies that sooner or later there will probably be a conflict and my grandson will take part in that conflict’. As his college classes grow to be more and more militarised and Vrej struggles to carry on to his childhood desires, his grandmother watches her prophecy unfold.”
