The Federal Office of Culture (OFC) confirmed on Thursday that the film «Iraqi Odyssey» will be Switzerland’s official entry to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the “Best Foreign Film” category for 2016.

Samirs 3D-documentary «Iraqi Odyssey» shows Iraqis as secular, cultured and open to the world in contrast to how they are normally portrayed in the media.
The OFC called it “a film that gives a unique insight into a country marked by war and caricatured by the stereotypes in the media”.

The 162-minute documentary film celebrated its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014 and was screened at the Berlinale in the Panorama section in February 2015. The Swiss film, coproduced with Germany, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates has distributors in a number of European countries. Samir’s film starts in cinemas in Germany on September 24 (distributor: NFP), and in Austria in mid-October (distributor: Polyfilm). World sales are with Autlook Filmsales.

Director Samir, born in Baghdad in 1955, is delighted about the decision. “After the astonishing success of “Iraqi Odyssey” in Swiss cinemas, I am all the more excited about the jury’s selection. In doing so, it sets a courageous example, representing an open-minded Switzerland among the Oscar contenders. And for that, I would like to express my sincere gratitude.”

The list of films nominated for Oscars in each category will be published by the Academy in January 2016. The awards ceremony will be held February 28 2016 in Los Angeles.

Dschoint Ventschr is awarded with the 2014 Prix Walo in film production with Xavier Kollers fiction feature «Die Schwarzen Brüder».

Filmmaker Samir joins Live host Marc Lamont Hill to discuss his film, «Iraqi Odyssey» a tell-all story of his globalized middle-class Iraqi family, dispersed between Auckland, Moscow, Paris, London and Buffalo, New York.

The 2014 Swiss Film Honorary Award will go to Alexander J. Seiler, one of the founding fathers of the “New Swiss Cinema” movement. Federal Councillor Alain Berset will present the activist filmmaker and producer with his “Quartz” trophy on 21 March during the official Swiss Film Award ceremony at the Schiffbau in Zurich.

The Federal Office of Culture will bestow the 2014 Swiss Film Honorary Award on writer and film producer Alexander J. Seiler, a co-founder of the internationally acclaimed "New Swiss Cinema" movement which emerged in the mid-1960s. The award recognises his important contribution to filmmaking as well as his outstanding achievements as a writer and journalist.