oscars

Taxi To The Dark Side, director Alex Gibney’s look at the US policy on torture in Afghanistan and Iraq, won the Oscar for “Best Outstanding Documentary Feature” at last night’s awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

In accepting the award, Gibney said, “Here’s to all doc filmmakers,” and then went on to dedicate the award to Dilawar, the Afghan cab driver whose death provides the film with its throughline and title, and to his own late father, a former Navy interrogator, noting “his fury about what was being done to the rule of law.”

Taxi to the Dark Side was one of three nominees that touched on the war in Iraq.

Gibney will be in attendance at the March 3rd screening of Taxi to the Dark Side at Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario, part of the 5th Annual Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Some tickets still remain for the screening. Call 416-968-FILM (3456) for more information.

Taxi to the Dark Side has been shortlisted for this year’s Academy Awards. The announcement was made this morning by The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis and actress Kathy Bates.

Taxi to the Dark Side is nominated in the “Documentary Feature” category. Others films nominated in the category include: “No End in Sight,” “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience,” “Sicko,” and “War/Dance.”

Oscar nominees are chosen in most categories by specific branches of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, such as actors, writers and directors. The academy’s full membership of about 5,800 was eligible to vote for best-picture nominations and can cast ballots for the winners in all categories at the Oscar ceremony itself.

The Oscars will be broadcast live on February 24th. For a complete list of this year’s nominees, click here.

Taxi to the Dark Side screens March 3, 2008, 7:30 PM, at Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario, part of the 5th Annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Director Alex Gibney will be in attendance.

Taxi to the Dark Side is co-presented with HotDocs.

Taxi to the Dark Side has been shortlisted in the Documentary Feature category for the 2008 Oscars. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the custodian of the Oscars, will announce the final five nominations on January 22nd at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles.

Aside from “Taxi,” other films covering the Iraq War that made the list included Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro’s “Body of War,” Charles Ferguson’s “No End in Sight” and Richard Robbins’ “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience.”

The film focuses on the controversial death in custody of an Afghan Jitney taxi driver named Dilawar. Dilawar was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extrajudicial detention at the Bagram Air Force Base.

Director Alex Gibney (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”) will be on hand to introduce the film when it screens March 3rd at Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario. Tickets are now on sale for this and other films schedule for the 5th Annual Toronto Human Rights Film Festival.