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DUBAI: Submissions in the Best International Feature Film category for the 98th Academy Awards are rolling in ahead of the 2026 Oscars, which will be held on March 15.
The shortlist that trims the number to 15 will be revealed on Dec. 16, with the nominations to be announced on Jan. 22, 2026.
So far, several films from the Middle East have been submitted, as well as films by directors of Middle Eastern origin.
Canada: ‘The Things You Kill’

Iranian Canadian director Alireza Khatami’s work premiered at this year’s Sundance Festival, winning the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award. The film follows professor Ali (Ekin Koc), who is haunted by the suspicious death of his mother.
Sweden: ‘Eagles of the Republic’

Swedish Egyptian director Tarik Saleh’s Cannes Competition selection follows a film star who finds himself thrown into the inner circle of political power, where he begins a risky affair.
Turkey: ‘One of those Days when Hemme Dies’

Murat Fıratoglu’s debut follows a tomato harvest worker who seeks a radical solution after trying to pay off a mounting debt.
Jordan: ‘All That’s Left of You’

This drama by Cherien Dabis centers on a multi-generational Palestinian family from 1948 to the present day.  
Tunisia: ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’
Kaouther Ben Hania’s drama set in Gaza premieres at the ongoing Venice Film Festival. The film, which counts Brad Pitt among its executive producers, reconstructs the events surrounding the killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab by the Israeli military in January 2024. Ben Hania is the first Arab woman to garner two Oscar nominations — her “Four Daughters” was nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2024 Oscars, while “The Man Who Sold His Skin,” earned her a nomination for Best International Feature Film at the 2021 awards.

JEDDAH: For Ahmad Haddad, art is both a personal and cultural inquiry, with pen marks, traditional dress, and performance converging to question boundaries and preserve heritage through vivid experiences.

The 30-year-old Riyadh-based artist and certified arts educator grew up between Jeddah and Madinah, and works across drawing, digital collage, mixed media, and performance.

The pen is his main instrument to explore the human body, identity, and cultural boundaries. His approach is shaped by his studies in psychology, landscape architecture, and marketing.

“I use art to make the unseen visible and to reimagine the familiar,” Haddad told Arab News. “I’m driven by questions like: What happens when the invisible becomes visible? And how do symbols and boundaries shape space?”

Haddad has exhibited in more than 25 national and international exhibitions, including “The Lost Other in Paris” (2025), “Delicacy of Dualities” in Riyadh (2024), “Sindbad: I See the Land” in Jeddah (2023), and his solo show “Reflection” in Jeddah (2020).

He has also collaborated with Misk Art Institute, Misk Global Forum, Riyadh Art, and the Visual Arts Commission.

He has twice taken part in the Intermix Residency. In Diriyah last year, he developed a research-based project on the boundaries of beauty in Eastern masculinity. In Paris earlier this year, he extended that inquiry to explore how traditional clothing shapes movement and presence.

His Paris installation, “Ya Ibn ‘Ammi,” examined solitude and individuality through traditional symbols such as the agal.

Sound design linked Saudi and French cultural elements in the work. “It is almost unimaginable to see a traditional Bedouin man in a setting that compromises his dignity, moving with excessive fluidity or softness, or even lowering his gaze,” Haddad explained. “These unspoken codes profoundly shape our perception of a man’s role in society.”

Haddad is preparing to publish his research on traditional dress, which he believes may lead to a follow-up study on how fabric, color, and comfort influence male personality and movement.

His visual language blends anatomy, Qur’anic symbols, geometry, subconscious marks, and forms inspired by Saudi culture and Hijazi heritage.

His creative process often begins with a blue ballpoint pen, followed by acrylics, pastels, and collage on paper, fabric, cardboard, or digital screens.

“A pen records hesitation, weakness, strength, and confidence all at once,” he said. “As children, we weren’t allowed to use one until we turned 10. Unlike a pencil, a pen offers no eraser — its marks are permanent. That permanence became part of me.”

“I always seek the hidden form before the visible one appears,” he added.

Blue ink carries deep meaning for him: “I see it as the color of truth — the hue of universal laws before Earth existed. It’s the color I glimpse in the symbols behind my closed eyes: a blend of divinity, mystery, mortality, and truth.”

In addition to his art practice, Haddad founded Haddad Studio in Riyadh’s Jax District. The space has hosted more than 120 workshops and programs in 16 Saudi cities, fostering what he calls “sustainable creative communities.”

“Audience engagement is key in some of my projects,” he said. “I produce yearly works based on public interaction.”

Currently, he is building a strategic partnership to connect Haddad Studio with Paris. “I’m very selective about my inner circle, almost meticulously so — so it’s easy for me and my friends, despite living in different cities, to share experiences, organize activities, and create workshops that benefit people and exchange knowledge.”

From the permanence of a pen line to the constraints of traditional dress, Haddad is a Saudi artist challenging the boundaries between form, identity, and cultural memory.