Syrian documentary The Other Side of the Sun, directed by Tawfik Sabouni, has been selected as Syria’s submission for the 99th Academy Awards. The film will compete in the Best International Feature Film category. The decision marks the country’s first entry since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, positioning the film at a moment of profound political and cultural transition. Andana Films, which handles worldwide sales to the film, also announced that New York based Icarus Films has acquired US rights to the film.
Click here to read Business Doc Europe’s Berlinale review of The Other Side of the Sun.
Announced by the General Organization for Cinema, the decision carries “historic significance,” marking the first selection made by Syria’s newly formed committee accredited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), “underscoring a new chapter in the country’s participation in the international awards landscape,” the organization writes.
“The selection of The Other Side of the Sun comes within a distinctive cinematic and humanitarian context,” the General Organisation for Cinema continues. “The film explores the experience of imprisonment in Saydnaya Prison, one of the most prominent detention sites associated with Syria’s recent history and collective memory during the previous decades of rule. It does so through the experience of director Tawfik Sabouni, who was previously imprisoned there, alongside four other survivors of detention.”
Sabouni returned to Saydnaya Prison with four fellow survivors to retrace the places and experiences that shaped their years of imprisonment. Blending testimony with re-enactment, the film gives tangible form to memories long confined to silence, capturing the enduring impact of incarceration in ways that spoken accounts alone cannot fully express.
Beyond its significance as Syria’s official Oscar submission, “the film reflects a broader moment of cultural and historical reckoning,” the organization adds. “As the country reassesses its recent past, cinema is playing an increasingly important role in documenting lived experiences, preserving collective memory, and ensuring that stories once kept from public view can finally be heard.”
Director Tawfik Sabouni comments: “I am deeply happy and moved by this selection. This moment is the culmination of years of hard work, years during which I carried this film on my own, despite the doubts, the obstacles and the weight of such a responsibility. To see this project come to fruition today and find its place on such a stage is an immense personal and collective victory. But beyond the artistic journey, the true significance of this selection lies in the voice it gives to those whom others have sought to silence. The stories of the men and women who lost their lives in the prisons of the Assad regime will never be forgotten. Their memory, their suffering and their dignity will be forever etched in our minds and presented to the eyes of the world. It is to them, above all, that this selection belongs.”
Following its Berlinale Panorama premiere, The Other Side of the Sun went on to screen at a number of international festivals, winning both the Jury Award and the FIPRESCI Award at the Amman International Film Festival, alongside the Audience Award in the Arab Documentary Feature Competition.
The Other Side of the Sun is produced by Dérives, Habilis Productions and Clin d’Oeil Films, with international sales handled by Andana Films.
