Tunisian producer Habib Attia is among the new members invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a prestigious institution that organizes Oscars every year. This recognition confirms the importance of his career and his contribution to the revival of Tunisian cinema, which he has been accompanying for almost two decades through powerful, singular and now essential works on the international scene.
Habib Attia thus joins a still limited circle of Tunisian professionals admitted within the Academy, all having played an active role in the development of Tunisian cinema. Before him, director Kaouther Ben Hania – of which he produced several films -, Director Raja Amariproducer Dorra Bouchoucha, Franco-Tunisian editor Nadia Ben Rachid, or even director Meryam Joobeur (Brothappointed to the Oscars in 2020), were invited to sit in different branches of the institution. Producer Tarak Ben Ammar, who produced several films shot in Tunisia and supported local industry in the 1970s, is also one of them. The entry of Habib Attia thus strengthens a still modest but increasing Tunisian presence in this reference institution.
At the head of the Cinéléfilms company, founded by his father Ahmed Bahaeddine Attia, historic producer of major films like The Silences of the Palace,, Gold hooves And HalfaouineHabib Attia knew, upon his return to Tunisia in 2007 after completing his studies in Italy, bringing out a new generation of filmmakers. Its name is today inseparable from the breakthrough of Tunisian cinema on the world scene, notably thanks to a series of films that have crossed the borders of festivals to access the highest recognition spheres, to the Academy itself.
One of the most striking projects he has worn remains The man who sold his back/The Man Who Sold His Skinproduced by Kaouther Ben Hania, which allowed Tunisia to win its very first appointment to the Oscar for the best international film, in 2021. The film, daring and visually stylized, questions the concepts of freedom, borders and commodification of bodies, through the history of a Syrian refugee that has become a work of living art. Presented at the Venice Mostra, He has experienced an exceptional journey to Oscars, consolidating the reputation of Habib Attia as a producer capable of carrying projects that are both artistically demanding and internationally viable.
Two years later, in 2023, he produced Olffa’s girlsalso produced by Kaouther Ben Hania. The film is presented in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival (First presence of a Tunisian film in official selection since 1970) And Wins there four prizes awarded by independent juries: The golden eye of best documentary, the François-Chalais Prize, the Citizenship Prize and the Prize for positive cinema. He was then appointed to the 2024 Oscars in the best documentary category. Hybrid work, between documentary and fiction, The daughters of Olfa questions the fate of a Tunisian mother, two of whom have joined Daesh, while exploring the intimate and political trauma that this story embodies. Here again, the production gesture of Habib Attia is fundamental: supporting a complex work, which upsets traditional narrative formats, while ensuring it global visibility.
But beyond these two emblematic films, Habib Attia has produced, for the past fifteen years, several major works in post-revolutionary Tunisian cinema. From 2013, The Challat of Tunissatirical and sassy, marked the start of his collaboration with Kaouther Ben Hania. He had previously engaged in the production of No More Fear by Mourad Ben Cheikh, one of the very first films to document the Tunisian revolution, or even It was better tomorrow from Hinde Boujemaa. He is also co -producer of BROTHEHOOOD DE MANYAM JOBEUR, which earned Tunisia its first Oscar nomination in the fictional short film category.
Today, its entry to Academy comes to devote a course based on rigor, artistic fidelity and a rare capacity to make Tunisian stories deeply anchored in reality shine. It also attests to the growing place occupied by Tunisian cinema on the international scene. If Tunisian cinema is more and more present at major festivals and access prestigious ceremonies such as Oscars, it remains on the fringes of the major industrial circuits of global production, marked by complex economic and distribution issues. The trajectory of producers like Habib Attia proves that another model is possible: that of an independent, daring, free cinema, which does not wait for her hand to exist.
Neïla Driss
