Under the title of “Eye on the Oscars” Egypt to Day September Issue, published that “…At a press conference last month, an official industry higher committee announced that it had chosen Omaret Yacoubian (The Yacoubian Building) for submission to the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), as Egypt’s contender for nominations as a finalist for Best Foreign Film Award at next year’s Oscars.

The committee included writers Mohamed Salmawy and Louis Greiss, actress Leila Elwy, actors Mahmoud Yassin and Mahmoud Qabeel, filmmakers Samir Seif and Inas El-Degheidy and film critics Rafiq El-Sabban and Ahmed Saleh.

Yacoubian was chosen after it won five international awards at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, the Arab Cinema Festival in Paris and recently the Bronze Zenith for the First Fiction Feature Film in Montreal’s World Film Festival”.

Other movies considered for submission alongside Yacoubian were Damm El-Ghazal (Gazelle’s Blood), Malek we Ketaba (Heads and Tails), Awqat Faragh (Free Time), Wahed Men El-Nass (One of the People) and Leilet Soqoot Baghdad (The Night Baghdad Fell).

The Egyptian Catholic Center was originally responsible for nominating Egypt’s most Oscar-worthy film until the Cairo Film Festival, under the guidance of then-president Sherif El-Shobashy, took over the duties.

The Oscar nominations will be announced on January 23, 2007, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles.