Best Foreign Language Film and Palestine

Palestine: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announcement that Omar, one of this years candidates for best foreign language film, hailed from Palestine has raised eyebrows in these parts, where Israelis and the Palestinians are engaged in peace talks aimed at establishing just such a state, according to 660 News. The United Nations General Assemblys 2012 recognition of Palestine as a non-member state, over fierce Israeli objections, paved the way for the Academy to change its definition this time around. Abu-Assad also said the film qualified as such because it was the first to be almost completely financed by Palestinians. In any case, he added, the films nationality, like his own, was a matter of identity, not geography and In the Holy Land, the state of Palestine does not yet exist. But in Hollywood, it already has an Oscar finalist. For starters, much of the drama was shot in the Israeli city of Nazareth, home of director Hany Abu-Assad and many of the movies actors, rather than in the West Bank, where much of the movie is set. In contrast, Abu-Assads 2005 film Paradise Now, which was also nominated for an Oscar, was billed at the time as coming from the Palestinian Territories to avoid the inevitable political saber-rattling over sovereignty. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.