Hollywoodgate

Hollywoodgate is a 2023 German-American documentary film written and directed by Ibrahim Nash'at. It premiered out of competition at the 80th Venice International Film Festival. It was released in the United States on July 19, 2024.

Hollywoodgate
Film poster
Directed by	Ibrahim Nash’at
Written by	Ibrahim Nash'at Talal Derki Shane Boris
Produced by	Talal Derki Odessa Rae Shane Boris
Cinematography	Ibrahim Nash'at
Edited by	Atanas Georgiev Marion Tuor
Music by	Volker Bertelmann
Production companies	Rolling Narratives Jouzour Film Production Cottage M Raefilm Studios
Distributed by	Fourth Act Film
Release dates	August 31, 2023 (2023-08-31) (Venice) July 19, 2024 (2024-07-19) (United States)
Running time	91 minutes
Countries	Germany United States
Languages	English Dari Pashto

Production

The film was shot in over a year,^[1] and it chronicles the daily life in Afghanistan of Taliban air force commander Mawlawi Mansour, and one of his soldiers, the fundamentalist M.J. Mukhtar, following the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.^[2]

Release

The film premiered out of competition at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.^[3][4][5][6] It was later screened at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival,^[7] the 2023 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival,^[8] the 2023 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam,^[9] the 2024 Jeonju International Film Festival,^[10] the 2024 Seattle International Film Festival,^[11] the 2024 Sheffield International Documentary Festival,^[12] the 2024 Filmfest München,^[13] the 2024 CPH: DOX,^[14] the 2024 Antenna documentary film festival,^[15] the 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival,^[16] the 2024 Doc Fortnight,^[17] the 2024 Thessaloniki Documentary Festival,^[18] the 2024 Doc Point ^[19] and is set to premiere in the 2024 New Zealand International Film Festival^[20] and the 2024 ZagrebDox International Documentary Film Festival.^[21]

The film was released in the United States on July 19, 2024.^[22] It is set to be released in the regions of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) from August 30, 2024 where the Dubai-based distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired distribution rights.^[23]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 32 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "An exposé on the Taliban that can only show what documentarian Ibrahim Nash'at was allowed, Hollywoodgate provides an incomplete but vital glimpse into Afghanistan's new status quo."^[24] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[25]

Accolades

The film was named as the winners of "The Golden Eye" from the 2023 Zurich Film Festival,^[26] the "Full Frame Grand Jury Award" from the 2024 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival,^[27] the "AFF Feature Documentary Award" from the 2023 Adelaide Film Festival,^[28] "The Fipresci Prize" from the 2023 El Gouna Film Festival, and also received the top honors of El Gouna Gold Star for Documentary Film,^[29] the "Best Human Rights Film" from the 2023 Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival.^[30]