“Last Men In Aleppo” has earned an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature for its exploration of The White Helmets, the Syrian rescue team that saves people buried in the rubble after bombings in Aleppo. But the film’s producer, Kareem Abeed, and White Helmets co-founder Mahmoud Al-Hattar will not be present on Oscar Sunday after the Syrian government refused to expedite the visa process to allow them to travel to Hollywood.
Interest in the Syrian crisis and The White Helmets in particular has increased in the documentary community, as a Netflix doc largely filmed by the White Helmets won last year’s Oscar for Best Documentary Short.