“The Square,” the documentary about the Egyptian revolution that opens in Washington, D.C., on Friday, secured an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature on Thursday morning.

It’s the first Oscar nomination for director Jehane Noujaim and producer Karim Amer. The movie, which is being blocked by censors in Egypt, traces the nascent beginnings of the Tahrir Square protests in 2011 to the dislodging of former President Mohammed Morsi last summer.

Earlier this week, Noujaim told CQ Roll Call, “Unless we take a look back at the successes and the failures of the last three years, the human rights abuses that have happened, we’re allowing those abuses to continue. But by bringing them out into the open, and by continuing to discuss them, like these kinds of films do, we’ll be able to move towards a better future in the country.”

Quoting one of her principal characters from the film, Ahmed Hassan, she said an Academy Award nomination “will make the film absolutely unstoppable in Egypt. … It will allow our story not to be buried.”

The film will show at the West End Cinema, at 2301 M St. NW, on Friday, as well as on Netflix.