"A Sad and Beautiful World" by Cyril Aris, awarded at the Venice Film Festival, begins a pre-selection for the Oscars. (Photo courtesy of the director)
BEIRUT — Minister of Culture Ghassan Salameh announced that the film "A Sad and Beautiful World," directed by Cyril Aris, has been selected to represent Lebanon in the race for the 2026 Oscar for Best International Feature Film.
This official submission, ahead of the final selection by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the United States, was recommended by a specialized ministry committee comprised of film critics and experts in cinema. The decision was based on precise artistic criteria: relevance of the theme, quality of the script and direction, actors' performances, camerawork, and narrative rhythm.
The film, which is playing at Beirut's Metropolis cinema until Sunday, has already made a strong impression on the international stage. Presented in September at the Venice Film Festival's Giornate degli Autori (Venice Authors’ Days), "A Sad and Beautiful World" won the Audience Award, to a standing ovation.
Aris is known for sensitively done documentaries like "The Swing" and "Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano." In his first narrative feature film, he tells the story of Nino and Yasmina, from childhood to adulthood, as they live through everything that Lebanon has lived through in the last four decades, torn between tenderness and despair, sweetness and tragedy.
Written in 2019 and shot in 2024, in a context marked by regional tensions, the film brings together an ensemble cast with established figures and new talents: Mounia Akl, for whom the role of Yasmina was created, Hassan Akil, Julia Kassar, Tino Karam, and Nadyn Chalhoub. Aris unfolds a unique style, blending archival footage and fiction, humor and drama, in a direction that embraces the contradictions of the country.
"The two pillars of sadness and beauty reflect my vision of Lebanon," Cyril Aris told L’Orient-Le Jour after the Venice screening, marked by a full house and a standing audience. I wanted to tell an intimate story that carries within it my country’s fractures and bursts of hope."
After Venice, "A Sad and Beautiful World" continues its journey through several prestigious festivals, including the BFI London Film Festival and Valladolid, before a European release scheduled for early 2026.
Its Oscar submission embodies both "the vitality and ambition of Lebanese cinema, driven by a generation determined to bring together memory and modernity on the world stage," as noted in the statement from the minister of culture.
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