The Hollywood actress is backing the African country’s second-ever international feature film submission for the Oscars after a Cannes premiere. – Hollywoodreporter
Lupita Nyong’o has signed Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s feature debut, Goodbye Julia, as an executive producer.
The first-ever Sudanese feature to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival was also selected by the African country to be its second-ever Academy Awards submission for best international feature film.
“Goodbye Julia is a powerful representation of the conflict happening in Sudan right now, which affects millions of lives across Eastern Africa. Mohamed Kordofani and the filmmakers portray the concerns in a lovely, deeply intimate way. I’m honored to offer my voice to help communicate this film’s message to the world,” Nyong’o said in a statement on Wednesday.
She made her own movie debut in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, for which she garnered a best supporting actress Oscar. Nyong’o will next star in Paramount’s A Quiet Place horror series spinoff A Quiet Place: Day One, and she also played Nakia in Marvel’s Black Panther flicks.
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Goodbye Julia showcases two ladies whose friendship illustrates the delicate relationship and disparities between the northern and southern Sudanese cultures. The film stars Eiman Yousif and Sudanese model Siran Riak in her big-screen acting debut, and also features south Sudanese actor and activist Ger Duany.
Goodbye Julia takes place in Khartoum during the latter years of Sudan as a united country. The region returned to a broader conflict in 2023.
At Cannes, the feature earned up the Un Certain Regard section’s Freedom Prize and further honors at festivals in Chicago, Cyprus, France’s Festival Paysages de Cinéastes, Barcelona’s War on Screen festival and Amsterdam’s Septimius Award.
Goodbye Julia is represented in North America by CAA Media Finance and is produced by Amjad Abu Alala, creator of Station Films, and co-produced by Ali Alarabi of Ambient Light Films. Amjad Abu Alala directed Sudan’s first-ever Oscars submission, You Will Die at Twenty, in 2019, which Kordofani worked on as well.
