A Portland Director’s Short Documentary About Famine in Yemen Has Been Nominated for an Oscar

It’s Skye Fitzgerald’s second Oscar nomination.

By Shannon Gormley

Two days after Portland’s Omnivore Recordings took home a Grammy, another Portland project is up for a prestigious award.

Local director Skye Fitzgerald's Hunger Ward has nabbed an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Short Subject.

Hunger Ward follows Dr. Aida Alsadeeq and nurse Mekkia Mahdi as the two women work to care for starving children in therapeutic feeding centers in war-torn Yemen during what could become the worst famine in modern history.

It's Fitzgerald's second Oscar nomination. His film Lifeboat, about Libyan refugees trying to safely cross the Mediterranean, was nominated for the same award in 2019.

Hunger Ward got its streaming premiere on Pluto TV earlier this month after it was picked up by MTV Documentary Films. It's also on the program for a few upcoming film festivals.

This year’s Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, April 25. Maybe we’re biased, but we can’t help but feel Oregon-set and -shot First Cow got snubbed.

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.