With the Academy Awards just finished, it seems that almost everyone has had an Oscars namecheck of some description these last couple of weeks. Hamad Alawar, the Emirati director of the animated short Daddy ABC, was no exception when he took to Twitter to announce his film’s selection in competition at the Oscar-nominating Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California, which is currently taking place until March 16.
The director, who is a doctorate student in the United Kingdom and a member of Dubai Police’s Crime Scene 3-D Visualisation Section, tweeted the news from one of his regular jaunts around the globe. So for more information, we turned to Blink Studios, the Dubai animation house where the hard work went into creating the already multi-award-winning film.
Nathalie Habib, the general manager of Blink and the executive producer of Daddy ABC, explains the significance of being selected for an Oscar-nominating festival. Does Alawar already have one hand on the trophy or is it a bit more complex than that?
“Basically, the film has been qualified to be in competition, competing with others in its category,” she says. “Sometimes the list is quite long and chances of a win could be slim, but in the case of Cinequest it has been selected as one of 14 films, not too slim for a winning chance and for a passage to the Oscars.”
That sounds promising, and having screened at several festivals — the film has already won three awards in California alone, which may be a good omen — the team must have already seen some of the competition, so I ask Habib how she rates Daddy ABC’s chances.
“It’s hard to say simply because we are not informed as to what the judges are looking for. As such, films could be critiqued for story, animation style or animation technique. We believe in this case it is the story coupled with the animation technique that is winning Daddy ABC a lot of attention, and hopefully will give it a standout chance for winning at Cinequest.”
The film, which received support from the Abu Dhabi Film Commission, has been winning fans around the world with its blend of slapstick comedy, bright and colourful animation style and light-hearted exploration of the issue of gender equality in Gulf families.
Alawar’s first success, Once Upon a Seed, won the Dubai International Film Festival’s award for Best Emirati Talent in 2006.
cnewbould@thenational.ae