Norwegian short film about Hong Kong protests nominated for Oscar

A Norwegian documentary about the 2019 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests and unrest has been nominated for an Oscar.

Do Not Split – a 35-minute feature by Anders Hammer – is up against four other films in the Best Short Documentary category on April 25.

Our movie about the protests in Hong Kong and the aftermath – Do Not Split 不割席 – is nominated for Oscars for best short documentary. Hopefully it can contribute to create attention around how basic human rights are suppressed by Beijing @CharlotteCook @fieldofvision pic.twitter.com/puIEBKdB6E
— Anders Hammer (@andershammer) March 15, 2021

The movie follows anti-extradition law demonstrators, as well as the government’s backlash up until the onset of the national security law last June. The title is a reference to the protesters’ principle of remaining united.

“[W]e wanted to capture the intensity of the streets in Hong Kong as the young protesters were risking everything in a fight for their future,” Hammer told HKFP on Tuesday. “This uprising started as demonstrations against a proposed extradition bill, which could have allowed people to be sent to Mainland China for trial. Soon it developed into a broader protest campaign for basic human rights, and hopefully the Oscars nomination can contribute to creating attention around how important it is that these human rights are not suppressed.”

The movie has amassed over 81,000 views on Vimeo, and has already been screened at Denmark’s International Documentary Film Festival and the New Orleans Film Festival in the US.

Meanwhile, Better Days – a romantic crime film directed by Hong Kong’s Derek Tsang – has been nominated for best international film.

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