Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir’s “Kadib Abyad” or “The Mother of All Lies” has been chosen to represent Morocco in the “Best International Film” section at the 2024 Oscars, the Moroccan Cinematographic Center (CCM) announced on Friday.
In addition to Asmae El Moudir’s film, the film of Sofia Alaoui, Animalia, and Yasmine Benkiran’s Queens met the criteria of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The committee is chaired by director of The Centre Cinématographique Marocain Narjiss Nejjar, and includes actor and director of the High Institute of Dramatic Art and Cultural Management (ISADAC) Latefa Ahrrare, directors and producers Mohamed Ahed Bensouda and Hakim Belabbes, film distributor Mohamed Khouna, film critics Khalil Demmoun and Ali Hassan, and cinema exhibitor Hassan Belkady.
The Mother of All Lies has already won the official competition prize worth A$60,000 ($41,000) at the 70th Annual Sydney Film Festival (SFF). The film also won the L’Oeil d’or Documentary Prize and the Directing Prize in the Un Certain Regard selection of the 76th Cannes Film Festival.
The documentary relates the story of a young woman’s quest for truth in the web of lies of her family; all related to the bread riots of Casablanca in 1981.