The winners of the Arab Film Competition were honoured at a special ceremony held at Al Rayyan Theatre at the 4th Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF), the annual cultural event of Doha Film Institute (DFI). The competition this year had prize money of over US$440,000. It also had its largest selection of 27 films, comprising […]
The winners of the Arab Film Competition were honoured at a special ceremony held at Al Rayyan Theatre at the 4th Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF), the annual cultural event of Doha Film Institute (DFI).
The competition this year had prize money of over US$440,000. It also had its largest selection of 27 films, comprising seven documentaries, seven narrative features and 13 shorts from 10 Arab countries, including first time entries to the competition from Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
We had set stringent quality standards for the Arab Film Competition this year from the short-listing process to evaluation. We congratulate the winners as well as every filmmaker who has been part of this amazing cinema journey .The Competition is a true reflection of our focus to strengthen the regional film industry by setting solid benchmarks of excellence, Abdulaziz Al-Khater, CEO of the Doha Film Institute said.
The winners in the Narrative Feature category are:
Best Narrative Feature Film
The Repentant (Algeria, France), directed by Merzak Allouache
Best Narrative Filmmaker
Nabil Ayouch for Horses of God (Morocco)
Best Performance
Ahmed Hafiane for Professor (Tunisia, France, Qatar)
Special Mention:
Goodbye Morocco (France, Belgium), directed by Nadir Moknèche
The winners in the Documentary Narrative are:
Best Documentary Feature Film
Lebanese Rocket Society (Lebanon, France, Qatar), directed by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige
Best Documentary Filmmaker
Hanan Abdalla for In The Shadow of a Man (Egypt)
Special Mention
Damien Ounouri for Fidai
The winners in the short film segment are:
Best Short Film
The Forgotten (Syria, Qatar), directed by Ehab Tarabieh
The two special awards recognised in the category owing to outstanding nature of the films subject and artistry are:
Development Award
Sanctity (Saudi Arabia), directed by Ahd
Special Mention
A Day in 1959 (Lebanon), directed by Nadim Tabet
The winners in the Made in Qatar segment are:
Made in Qatar Development Award
Bader, directed by Sara Al-Saadi, Maaria Assami, Latifa Al-Darwish
Special Mention
Lyrics Revolt by Shannon Farhoud, Ashlene Ramadan, Melanie Fridgant, Rana Khaled Al Khatib
Audience Choice: Best of the Fest
Full Circle directed by Yang Zhang
Searching for Sugar Man directed by Malik Bendjelloul
The award winning films will be screened at DTFF over the weekend. The films are also available to view through Festival Scope, www.festivalscope.com
