Hasan Hadi’s Oscar-shortlisted film THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE begins its theatrical release this Friday, February 6, opening in New York at AMC Empire and Angelika Film Center plus in Los Angeles at Laeemle Royal.
New stills have premiered for the acclaimed film which won 2 awards at Cannes and was named by Variety in its Top 10 Best Movies of 2025 list. The film will soon release in numerous additional cities throughout February.
SYNOPSIS: While people across 1990s Iraq struggle to survive the war and food shortages, the President requires each school in the country to prepare a cake to celebrate his birthday. Despite her efforts to avoid getting picked, 9-year-old Lamia is chosen among her classmates. The young girl must now use her wits and imagination to gather ingredients and prepare the mandatory cake in THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE.
Talking about the film, the director said, “For my first feature film, I wanted to tackle a subject, world, theme, and characters that I am familiar with. I was determined to develop these memories into a film about that period in Iraq—depicting the daily reality of its people, but above all, celebrating the power of love and friendship. We have something in Arabic called “Maktoob”, meaning “it is written” or “destiny” which really means that you can’t escape certain things because they’re written on you.”
ICYMI
