'For Sama' Earns 4 BAFTA Nominations, Including Outstanding Documentary

Film by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts also nominated for Outstanding British Film, alongside 1917 and The Two Popes

The announcement of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominations this morning brought major recognition to Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts' documentary  For Sama. The film, a strong contender for the Oscars, earned four nominations including Outstanding Documentary and Outstanding Film Not in the English Language.

In the Outstanding Documentary category, For Sama will go up against American Factory, directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert; Apollo 11 by Todd Douglas Miller, Asif Kapadia's Diego Maradona, and The Great Hack, directed by Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim.

For Sama reveals the struggle of the Syrian-born al-Kateab to raise her baby daughter Sama in the city of Aleppo as it was being reduced to rubble by Syrian government forces and their Russian allies. After she and her family fled Syria, they settled in Britain, where al-Kateab began working on her documentary with filmmaker Edward Watts.

Impressively, For Sama also earned a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding British Film, the  lone documentary to accomplish that. It will compete with fictional films 1917, winner of the Golden Globe on Sunday for Best Drama; Rocketman, winner of the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy; Bait ; Sorry We Missed You, and The Two Popes.

For Sama likewise earned al-Kateab and Watts a nomination for Outstanding Debut By a British Filmmaker. That category also saw documentary filmmaker Alex Holmes earn a nomination, for his film Maiden about the first all-women yachting team to compete in the dangerous Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989. 

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Related:
​>For Sama offers female perspective on Syria's brutal civil war
>"It was really a huge cultural clash": American Factory directors on their story of a Chinese company's effort to make a go of it in old GM plant
​>"The story is much more about Facebook than we imagined": The Great Hack directors get to bottom of data manipulation and 2016 election
​>"There is no one quite like him": director Asif Kapadia on the brilliant, flawed footballer Diego Maradona
​<Maiden: documentary about women sailors who navigated sexism and the open seas in world's biggest race

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The 2020 EE British Academy Film Awards will be presented in London on February 2.

"For Sama" directors Waad al-Kateab (center) and Edward Watts (left) discuss their film after a private screening in Los Angeles. Photo by Matt Carey