First Arab Movie📷

The Arab cinema did not flourish before the national independence of each of them, and even after, the films production of the Arab cinema was restricted to short-length films. However, there were exceptions for some of them. For example, Egypt scored the highest number in producing films for cinema amongst Arabs and produced more than 2,500 feature films. During the 1950s and 1960s Lebanon produced 180 feature films. Two full-length Kuwaiti films were produced at the end of 1970s, and a full-length Bahraini film was produced in 1989.Syria produced around 150 films, Tunisia approximately 130, 100 films produced from each of Algeria and Iraq, Morocco almost 70, and Jordan’s productions were less than 12.

The first Arabic-language film to ever be nominated is The Battle of Algiers. It is an Italian-Algerian historical war film from Italian writer and director Gillo Pontecorvo, shot in Algeria. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 1967 and then for Best Screenplay and Best Director in 1969.

Though The Academy Awards began in 1929, the history of Arab cinema at the Oscars doesn’t start until the 29th ceremony, held in 1957, after the Best Foreign Language Film category was introduced. Up until 1956, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. As of 2020, the category has been renamed Best International Feature Film. Because of this, there is no presence of Arab films, nor of many international films at all, in the Oscars prior to the late 1950s.

Arab cinema or Arabic cinema (Arabic: السينما العربية‎, romanized: al-sīnemā al-ʿArabīyah) refers to the cinema of the Arab world.

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