As Jolie preferred to dedicate herself to her humanitarian work, her cinematic output remained infrequent. "First They Killed My Father" (2017), a drama set during Cambodia's Khmer Rouge era, again enabled her to combine both interests. In addition to directing the film, she co-wrote the screenplay with her longtime friend Loung Ung, whose memoirs about the regime's child labor camps served as its source material. Intended primarily for a Cambodian audience, the film was produced directly for Netflix, which allowed for the use of an exclusively Khmer cast and script. Labeling Jolie as a "skilled and sensitive filmmaker", Rafer Guzmán of "Newsday" commended her for "convincingly depict the illogical hell of the Khmer Rouge era". It received nominations for the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language.