| Hollywoodgate | |
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 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Ibrahim Nash’at |
| Written by |
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| Produced by | |
| Cinematography | Ibrahim Nash'at |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Volker Bertelmann |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Fourth Act Film |
Release dates |
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Running time | 91 minutes |
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Hollywoodgate is a 2023 German-American documentary film written and directed by Ibrahim Nash'at. It premiered out of competition at the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival. It was released in the United States on July 19, 2024.
The film was shot in over a year, [1] and it chronicles the daily life in Afghanistan of Taliban air force commander Mawlawi Mansour, and one of his soldiers, the fundamentalist M.J. Mukhtar, following the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. [2]
The film premiered out of competition at the 80th Venice International Film Festival. [3] [4] [5] [6] It was later screened at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival, [7] the 2023 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, [8] the 2023 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, [9] the 2024 Jeonju International Film Festival, [10] the 2024 Seattle International Film Festival, [11] the 2024 Sheffield International Documentary Festival, [12] the 2024 Filmfest München, [13] the 2024 CPH: DOX, [14] the 2024 Antenna documentary film festival, [15] the 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival, [16] the 2024 Doc Fortnight, [17] the 2024 Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, [18] the 2024 Doc Point [19] and is set to premiere in the 2024 New Zealand International Film Festival [20] and the 2024 ZagrebDox International Documentary Film Festival. [21]
The film was released in the United States on July 19, 2024. [22] It is set to be released in the regions of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) from August 30, 2024 where the Dubai-based distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired distribution rights. [23]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 91% of 32 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10.The website's consensus reads: "An exposé on the Taliban that can only show what documentarian Ibrahim Nash'at was allowed, Hollywoodgate provides an incomplete but vital glimpse into Afghanistan's new status quo." [24] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [25]
The film was named as the winners of "The Golden Eye" from the 2023 Zurich Film Festival, [26] the "Full Frame Grand Jury Award" from the 2024 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, [27] the "AFF Feature Documentary Award" from the 2023 Adelaide Film Festival, [28] "The Fipresci Prize" from the 2023 El Gouna Film Festival, and also received the top honors of El Gouna Gold Star for Documentary Film, [29] the "Best Human Rights Film" from the 2023 Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. [30]
CPH:DOX, also known as Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, is a Danish film festival focused on documentary films, held annually in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since 2008 has been run by Copenhagen Film Festivals, which also managed the now-defunct CPH PIX festival.
Malek Shafi’i is a film director, producer, festival organiser, and human rights activist from Afghanistan.
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Diana El Jeiroudi, is a Berlin-based, Syrian independent film director and producer. El Jeiroudi’s films as director were celebrated at many festivals, including the Venice Film Festival, IDFA, DokLeipzig, Visions du Réel, CPH:DOX… among others. Her producing credits include the Sundance 2023 film 5 Seasons of Revolution, the Cannes Film Festival 2014 selection Silvered Water, the IDFA 2013 selection The Mulberry House, among others. She was the first Syrian to be a juror in Cannes Film Festival in 2014, when she was part of the first Documentary Film Award jury in the festival. Together with her partner Orwa Nyrabia, El Jeiroudi was also the first Syrian known to be invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2017. El Jeiroudi was also a co-founder of DOX BOX International Documentary Film Festival in Syria and DOX BOX e.V. non-profit association in Germany.
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The Men's Room is a 2018 Norwegian documentary film written and directed by Peter Sommer and Jo Vemund Svendson. It concerns 25 Norwegian men in a men's choir rehearsing for their biggest event ever: warming up for Black Sabbath in front of 10,000 people. However, backstage issues arise as Ivar, the conductor, is terminally ill and may not survive to witness the concert.
Laila Haidari is an Afghan activist and restaurateur. She runs Mother Camp, a drug rehabilitation centre she founded in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2010. She also owns Taj Begum, a Kabul cafe that funds Mother Camp. Taj Begum is frequently raided because it breaks taboos; the cafe is run by a woman and allows unmarried men and women to eat together. Haidari is the subject of the 2018 documentary film Laila at the Bridge. She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021.
Songs of Repression is a 2020 internationally co-produced documentary film about the German colony Colonia Dignidad in Chile. The film premiered at 2020 the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival, where it won the Politiken:Danish:Dox Award and the CPH:DOX Award.
Elvira Lind is a Danish film director based in New York City.
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami is a 2017 biographical documentary film about Jamaican singer Grace Jones, directed by Sophie Fiennes. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and subsequently met with generally favorable reviews.
Frédéric Tcheng is a French film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He is best known for his documentaries Dior and I, Halston, and Invisible Beauty.
Retrograde is a 2022 American documentary film directed by Matthew Heineman that covers events that took place during the final nine months of America's 20-year war in Afghanistan. It had its U.S. premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 3, 2022, and had its Canadian debut at the Vancouver International Film Festival on October 2, 2022. It was released in select theaters in the United States starting November 11, 2022, by National Geographic Documentary Films and Picturehouse and was later made available on various streaming platforms.
A House Made of Splinters is a 2022 documentary film by the Danish film director Simon Lereng Wilmont, created with the support of the State Agency of Ukraine for Film Affairs. An international co-production with Denmark, Ukraine, Sweden and Finland, it follows the story of children from a special orphanage in eastern Ukraine.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is a 2023 documentary film written and directed by Anna Hints in her feature directorial debut. It is about a group of women who gather in a smoke sauna where they clean the dirt from their ashamed and aching bodies. It was selected as the Estonian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards. It is a co-production between Estonia, France and Iceland.
Songs of Earth is a 2023 Norwegian documentary film written and directed by Margreth Olin. In the film, Olin follows her 85-year-old father through a year in the natural surroundings of Oldedalen in Vestland, where he grew up. The film had its world premiere during the documentary film festival CPH:DOX in Denmark on 18 March 2023, and a Norwegian cinema premiere on 1 September of the same year.
Invisible Nation is a 2023 American–Taiwanese documentary film, directed and produced by Vanessa Hope. It follows the presidency of Tsai Ing-wen, as she struggles to preserve its democracy and handle the geopolitical forces of the United States and China.
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