Held within the events of the 74^th Cannes Film Festival, Arab Cinema Center announced the winners of the 5^th Critics Awards for Arab Films.  This year, the international jury panel encompasses 160 film critics from 63 countries. The jurors will review the Arab films that have been produced in 2020 through the digital platform of Festival Scope, the ACC’s partner.

Deborah Young, Manager of the Critics Awards for Arab Films, commented on that saying:

“Although last year was hard on everyone, the Arab Cinema managed to provide a high-quality level of fiction and documentary films; making it hard to pick the nominees for this year’s Critics Awards for Arab Films. My congratulations to everyone who made it this year, and thank you to all the critics of the jury panel for their efforts.”

Co-founders of ACC, Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab, commented saying:

“This year’s edition witnessed a fierce competition among nominees that were very outstanding. What’s also remarkable about this edition is that Palestine had the greatest share in this competition, winning four awards among a total of six. This indicates the great progress that the Palestinian cinema has seen during recent years.”

Here’s the winners’ list:

Best Documentary

Lift Like A Girl | Directed by Mayye Zayed | Egypt

Best Actress

Hiam Abbas | Gaza Mon Amour | Palestine

Best Actor:

Ali Suliman | 200 Meters | Palestine

Best Screenplay:

Kaouther ben Hania | The Man Who Sold His Skin | Tunisia

Best Director:

Ameen Nayfeh | 200 METERS | Palestine

Best Feature Film

Gaza Mon Amour| Directed by Arab Nasser – Tarzan Nasser | Palestine

The first edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films was held on the margins of the 70^th Cannes Film Festival. The awards are given to the best Arab film productions every year in the following categories: Best Feature Film, Best Documentary Film, Best Director, Best Writer, Best Actress and Best Actor. For the first time in the history of Arab cinema, the jury committee brings together 160 of the most prominent Arab and international film critics from 63 countries from all over the world this year.

The final list of the nominees for the Critics Awards for Arab Films were selected according to the following criteria: the films must have been premiered at international film festivals outside of the Arab world during 2020, and at least one of the production companies must be Arab (regardless of the size of its contribution to the production of the film), in addition, the films must be feature-length films (fiction or documentary).

Organized by MAD Solutions in 2015, the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is a nonprofit organization registered in Amsterdam. The ACC is an international promotional platform for Arab cinema as it provides the filmmaking industry with a professional window to connect with their counterparts from all over the world through a number of events that it organizes. 

The ACC also provides networking opportunities with representatives of companies and institutions specialized in co-production and international distribution, among others. The ACC‘s activities vary between film markets, stands, and pavilions, networking sessions and one-on-one meetings bringing together Arab and foreign filmmakers, welcome parties, as well as meetings with international organizations and festivals, and the issuance of the Arab Cinema Magazine to be distributed at the leading international film festivals and markets.

Furthermore, newsletter subscription is now available on the ACC‘s website, allowing users to obtain digital copies of the Arab Cinema Magazine, as well as news on the ACC‘s activities, notifications of application dates for grants, festivals and offers from educational and training institutions, updates on Arab films participating at festivals, exclusive news on the Arab Cinema LAB, and highlights from the ACC‘s partners and their future projects.

The ACC also launched an English-language Arab Cinema Guide, available on its website, which is a comprehensive cinematic guide that comprises a variety of tools presented collectively for the first time to offer information on Arab cinema to filmmakers inside and outside of the Arab world. It also aims to facilitate filmmakers’ access to international markets and help film industry representatives to easily identify Arab film productions.