[2][3] Goodbye Julia was selected by the Sudanese National Committee operating in exile to compete for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards, but was later not included in the shortlist.

Mona, a Muslim and former popular singer from the North, who lives with her husband Akram, seeks to attenuate her feelings of guilt for causing the death of a southern man by employing Julia, a Christian and his unsuspecting widow, as her maid.

[12][13] Commenting on the social context of his film, Kordofani said: "The racism that was practiced for many decades from most Northern Arabs, government and people, was a major reason for the southerners choosing to secede.

[27] On 25 October 2023, Goodbye Julia was launched commercially in 20 Egyptian cinemas, selling a record number of box office tickets for foreign films in Egypt in its first two weeks.

[34] Reviews of the premiere were similarly positive, highlighting the film's dramatic storytelling of personal relationships before a wider social and historical background.

Writing for Cineuropa portal, film critic Fabien Lemercier said: "Mohamed Kordofani offers up wonderful snapshots, overviews and explanations of all the nuances of the acute Sudanese situation of the time.

Then again, despite her relative poverty and being on the sharp end of every -ism (colorism, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism) that bedevils Khartoum at this moment in time, Julia has from the outset the freer spirit; it is Mona who is most in need of change.Writing for BBC News, Shereen Sherief likewise praised both the film's scenario and photography and gave special credit to the soundtrack, as well as to the two main actresses, who "explore the deep-seated tensions and divisions that resulted in the split of Sudan.

The high standards of craftsmanship are evident in every frame, from the visually stunning cinematography to the nuanced performances by the cast.In May 2024, Goodbye Julia was awarded the Prix Jean Renoir des lycéens, pronounced by a national jury of secondary schools and sponsored by the French Ministry of Education.

Managed by the Arab Cinema Centre in Cairo,[40] these distinctions are awarded by 209 critics from 72 countries, and the winners are scheduled to be announced at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2024.

Despite this, he also wrote that "The opening scenes in Khartoum are filmed with the tension of a ticking time bomb, but as it approaches the second and third acts, it stumbles and treads familiar ground.

They go rampant and form deadly mobs in the street, set fire to poor people’s shacks, evict women, and push them in the back of their cars to imprison them.