A Jack of all Trades: Celebrating Nadine Labaki and her Trail of Success

Lebanese actress, director, and writer Nadine Labaki has been making history as a female filmmaker, winning many awards along the way, and her talent in diversity has not gone unnoticed. While she started off as a director in 2002, directing a Nancy Ajram video, she did her first acting job in 2003, and her first writing job in 2007. Meanwhile, ‘Costa Brava, Lebanon,’ a film by Mounia Akl, starring Nadine Labaki, won the Netpac award at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, and to celebrate this even more, we’ve dedicated this to Labaki’s other wins!

Costa Brava, Lebanon

The film tells the story of a family of four, where Nadine Labaki plays Soraya, the mother, and Saleh Bakri plays Walid, the father. Together they leave the city of Beirut to go and live in the mountains. However, when they go to their new home in the mountains, they discover that the government built a dump site on the land next to their home.

“Thank you so much Toronto for this award. It really means a lot to me and the team. I just came back from Toronto and the screening was so magical; the audience was so alive and receptive and I left really moved,” said Mounika Akl after the film won the award.

Labaki’s awards

Up till now, Nadine Labaki has 15 acting credits to her name, three writing credits, eight short video directing credits, and three film direction credits! However, her most memorable films are the films she has written and directed, including Capharnaüm, Where Do We Go Now, and Caramel.

When we tell you that she’s a jack of all trades, you better believe it! She’s been nominated 35 times for awards in acting, writing, and directing. Additionally, Labaki won 38 awards, but that’s not it! Labaki has quite a few prestigious nominations and awards as well.

Academy Awards

In 2019, Capharnaüm was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year. That year, she was the only female director whose film got nominated in this category. In addition, she is the second female Arab director to have ever been nominated for an Oscar.

BAFTA Film Award

In 2018, LabAki and her co-director Khaled Mouzanar were nominated for a BAFTA Film Award for Capharnaüm as the Best Film Not in the English Language. This was Labaki’s first nomination for a BAFTA Film Award, and also makes her the first Arab female filmmaker to be nominated for one.

Golden Globes

In 2019, Capharnaüm was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language in the Golden Globes, and is the second film from Lebanon to ever be nominated in the Golden Globes. Labaki was also the only female director nominated in this category that year!

Cannes Film Festival

Labaki has had her fair share of Cannes Film Festival awards, landing a couple of wins. She was nominated nine times and won five times out of them. In 2007, her film Caramel was nominated for the Golden Camera and the CICAE award. In 2011, her film Where Do We Go Now was nominated for Un Certain Regard Award and won the François Chalais Award and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury – Special Mention. In 2018, Capharnaüm was nominated for a Palme d’Or and won the Jury Prize, Prix de la citoyenneté, and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.

Additional awards

Labaki has also won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival award for Where Do We Go Now. Since 2002, she has accumulated nominations and/or awards from over 44 film festivals. Over the course of 19 years, Nadine Labaki’s work continues to make mad waves across various film festivals!

Some of the international film festivals she’s been nominated or won awards in include: Adelaide Film Festival in Australia, Amanda Awards in Norway, Bodil Awards in Denmark, César Awards in France, Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards in Ireland, Guldbagge Awards in Sweden, Rotterdam International Film Festival in the Netherlands, São Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil, and The Lebanese Movie Awards in Lebanon.

Today we celebrate Nadine Labki, and considering her current achievements, we can count on her to sway us some more in the future!

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