The Look of Silence Shortlisted For 2016 Oscars & Wins IDA Award

The Look Of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer’s companion piece to The Act of Killing won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice Film Festival in 2014, and now with over 40 international awards under its belt (including IDA Best Feature last night) it has emerged as one of the front runners for a 2016 Oscar nomination.

On Tuesday The Look of Silence was shortlisted for a 2016 Oscar nomination by the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences along with 14 other films out of 124 submissions. The final five documentary contenders for the Oscars 2016 will be announced in Los Angeles on January 14, 2016.

Directed by Copenhagen-based Joshua Oppenheimer, The Look of Silence is a companion piece to The Act of Killing from 2012. The film takes us once again to the Indonesian genocide of 1965-66, this time as seen through the eyes of a young optometrist, Adi Rukun, who seeks out the men who killed his brother. Whilst testing their eyesight, he confronts them about their actions.

“We are very honoured and happy that The Look of Silence has been shortlisted. We hope that this will mean even more screenings across Indonesia, and that the debate that the film helps generate will lead towards a healing process for the country”, said producer Signe Byrge Sørensen.