French filmmaker Jonathan Millet’s thriller Ghost Path gained El Gouna Movie Competition’s $50,000 Golden Star award for greatest narrative movie. The pageant ran October 24-November 1.
Lead Adam Bessa additionally gained greatest actor for his efficiency as a younger man on a mission to trace Syrian regime leaders in France, the place he should confront his former torturer. The movie world premiered at Cannes’ Critics’ Week sidebar.
The $25,000 Silver Star award went to Julien Colonna’s warfare drama The Kingdom, whereas Indian romantic drama Women Can be Women by Shuchi Talati gained the $15,000 Bronze Star and the Fipresci award.
The latter world premiered on the Sundance Movie pageant, profitable the viewers award and the jury particular award for greatest appearing for Preeti Panigrahi.
Finest actress went to Laura Weissmahr for her efficiency in Mar Coll’s Spanish psychodrama Salve Maria, as a brand new mom going by way of the complexities of motherhood.
Finest Arab narrative characteristic was shared by Palestinian filmmaker Laila Abbas’ drama Thank You For Banking With Us! and Tunisian filmmaker Meryam Joobeur’s drama Who Do I Belong To, which world premiered in competitors on the Berlinale.
The jury additionally gave a particular point out to actor Charles Peccia Galletto for his efficiency in Anne-Sophie Bailly’s drama My Every part.
15 movies had been screened on this yr’s characteristic narrative competitors. The jury was headed by Indian actress and filmmaker Nandita Das, and in addition included French movie critic Charles Tesson, Egyptian actress Menna Shalaby, German actress Sibel Kekilli, and Algerian filmmaker Sofia Djama.
Documentary competitors
Within the characteristic documentary competitors, Lebanese filmmaker Farah Kassem’s We Are Inside gained the $30,000 El Gouna Golden Star for greatest characteristic documentary. The movie follows the sophisticated relationship between Farah and her ageing Father, and the way poetry helps them talk.
There have been 12 characteristic documentary contenders. Lebanese director and producer Eliane Raheb presided over the jury which additionally featured French producer Jérôme Paillard, Tunisian actor and director Nejib Belkadhi, German director Steffi Niederzoll, and Moroccan director and producer Hicham Falah.
The $15,000 Silver Star went to Belgium filmmaker Johan Grimonprez’s Soundtrack To A Coup d’Etat, which explores the usage of jazz music as a software of U.S. diplomacy throughout the Chilly Struggle. It premiered at Sundance.
The $7,500 El Gouna Bronze Star went to Norwegian filmmaker Silje Evensmo Jacobsen’s A New Form Of Wilderness, a narrative of a Norwegian household seeks a wild free existence however a tragic flip of occasions shatters their isolation.
The $10,000 prize for greatest Arab documentary characteristic was shared by Egyptian filmmakers Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir’s The Brink Of Desires, the winner of one of the best documentary award at Cannes Critics’ Week, and Syrian filmmaker Anas Zawahri’s My Reminiscence Is Full Of Ghosts, which follows weary residents in Syria striving for normalcy.
The pageant’s $20,000 cinema for humanity award – for movies exploring humanitarian points – went to the Lebanese darkish comedy drama Dysfunction by Lucien Bourjeily, Bane Fakih, Wissam Charaf, and Areej Mahmoud.
In different awards, the NetPac award went to We Are Inside by Lebanese filmmaker Farah Kassem, whereas The Battle For Laikipia by Peter Murimi and Daphne Matziaraki from Kenya gained the $10,000 El Gouna Inexperienced Star award, for movies that elevate consciousness round points associated to the atmosphere, ecology or wildlife.