MTV Documentary Films’ Academy Award® nominated short subject documentary Hunger Ward from director Skye Fitzgerald chronicling Yemen’s devastating humanitarian crisis and the disproportionate impact on its children, will be released on Paramount+ this Friday, April 2nd.
Hunger Ward will also be released on April 2nd in over 120 movie theaters (including virtual cinema engagements) on the same day as part of the 2021 Oscar® Nominated Short Films theatrical release of short documentaries in addition to a series of special policy-focused impact screenings hosted (separately) by World Affairs Councils of America, Nobel Peace Center, and United States Institute of Peace.
The film, directed by Skye Fitzgerald, documents the devastating human cost of the on-going conflict in Yemen, which disproportionately affects children. Filmed from inside two of the most active therapeutic feeding centers in Yemen, Hunger Ward chronicles healthcare workers fighting to save the lives of extremely malnourished children within a population on the brink of famine against the backdrop of a forgotten war.
Hunger Ward is the third film in Fitzgerald’s trilogy on humanitarian and global refugee crises. His film 50 Feet from Syria was shortlisted for the Academy Awards® and debuted on Netflix. His film Lifeboat was nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short Subject. The third film of the trilogy, Hunger Ward, was nominated for the 2020 Critics Choice Documentary Awards for Best Short Documentary, won both Best Director and Best Editing from the 2020 Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA), and was included on the DOC NYC Short List of the best short films of 2020.
Director Skye Fitzgerald said: “It is an honor to have MTV Documentary Films and Paramount+ bring Hunger Ward’s urgent message of the humanitarian crisis affecting children of Yemen to a broad and engaged audience.”
Focused on the plight of starving and displaced civilians at the mercy of a forgotten war in Yemen, the filmmakers utilized a nimble production paradigm to create an intimate, yet cinematic film intended to engender empathy for those most deeply impacted by the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis.