Here are two films that have gotten the nods of film award-giving bodies this year. Belfast is in 7 Oscars categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress & Actor. Flee has three opportunities to get an Oscar - as a Documentary, an International Feature, and as an Animated Feature.

Belfast (Northern Ireland, Video on Demand) - Forget Death On the Nile; this is the Kenneth Branagh film project that’s worth it’s weight in gold. It’s a semi-autobiographical, very personal look at Kenneth’s own youth, living in Belfast, Northern Ireland during The Troubles of 1969. This was when the inner city strife between the Catholics and Protestants exploded into violent confrontations which pitched neighbor against neighbor who shared working class backgrounds. It’s when religion reared its irrational head, causing people who’d normally interact with friendliness, looking after each other’s children and knowing every soul on their street, suddenly turned hostile to each other, the Protestants clamoring that the Catholics vacate their homes.

Some critics have dismissed the film as depicting this historical era with gentle, rose-tinted glasses, but as the film’s POV is firmly that of the 9-year-old Buddy (played by the excellent Jude Hill), it’s only fair that the treatment is what it is. Buddy playing in the street, fighting imaginary dragons, with a trash can cover as a shield that becomes his only line of defense when protestors storm the same street and start throwing rocks with abandon. It’s his Ma (Caitriona Balfe) who intercedes to keep Buddy from danger, using the garbage can cover. While both Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds have garnered Oscar noms portraying Buddy’s grandparents, I think it’s a big oversight from Oscar not to have recognized Balfe’s work. Great ensemble acting, and a narrative that charms and resonates.

Flee (Denmark, Amazon Prime) - Flee, a film from Denmark, is that rare bird; a film that’s difficult to categorize. It’s a Documentary Drama, as it’s based on the real life experiences of a gay Afghan refugee who’s looking back on his life. It’s also an Animated Feature, as it’s executed via animation, with the occasional archival live action footage interspersed with the animation sequences. And if you’re the Academy Awards or BAFTA, it could qualify as a Feature Film In a Foreign Language. But either way you cut it, it’s a moving, exceptional cinematic experience, one that belies the simplicity in which it has been presented. Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, it’s nice to see the name of the likes of Riz Ahmed listed as a co-producer.

The film chronicles the life of Amin Nawabi, and we first meet him as an adult, who thrives in his life in the academe. He’s in a relationship with a Danish man, and they’re thinking of getting married. A documentary maker is interviewing him, and asking him about his childhood in Kabul, Afghanistan; and it’s a painful process as it obviously a past that he’s pushed to the back of his memory banks - and as the interviewer tellingly elicits from Amin, it’s a past he hasn’t even shared with partner. The film then takes us on a journey to 1980s Afghanistan and how even then, Amin knew he was gay, but was living in a country and society where there wasn’t even a word for homosexual. The trauma of being gay, and being a political refugee, become the counterpoints of the powerful tale that’s being shared through this documentary.