Buzkashi Boys was nominated for Best Live Action Short film From the streets of Kabul to red carpet fame, Afghan teen Fawad Mohammadi’s meteoric rise as the star of Sam French’s low-budget film Buzkashi Boys is nothing short of inspirational .Buzkashi Boys was nominated for Best Live Action Short film in January. The film tells the story of two young boys with big dreams of becoming Buzkashi players, a popular Afghan sport.
Mohammadi’s story is truly heart-wrenching. Having grown up on scraps from selling souvenir maps in Kabul’s streets, Mohammadi was paid $1,500 for his role in the low-budget film. Now the film has been nominated for an Oscar (something he had never even heard of until he received his invitation to attend the ceremony), Mohammadi has achieved his childhood dream of flying in an aeroplane.
Mohammadi said: “I am proud for Afghanistan, the first Oscar for Afghanistan.”
Mohammadi’s is not the only heart-warming story of the 2013 Oscars. Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Rachel Mwanza whose role in War Witch which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, has earned the 16-year-old a seat at the award ceremonies.
War Witch is about child soldiers in DRC and was shot by Canadian filmmaker, Kim Nguyen.
Nguyen has commented on how the film has changed Mwanza’s life: "Abandoned by her family and living on the streets as a child, her life has been transformed by the making of the film."