Dubai: The fifth Gulf Film Festival concluded on Monday evening with the award ceremony honouring the best in filmmaking talent in the region and from around the world.
Prizes and prestigious awards worth over Dh500,000 were presented by His Highness Shaikh Mansour Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum in categories such as International Competition – Shorts, Gulf Competition Students – Shorts, Official Gulf Competition – Shorts, and Official Gulf Competition – Feature.
Best Feature Film
Akram Hidou’s Halabja – The Lost Children (Germany, Iraq, Syria) received awards for best director and best feature film in the Official Gulf Feature competition while Walid Al Awadi’s Tora Bora (Kuwait), which was also the opening film for the festival, received a special jury prize.
The New York Film Academy Abu Dhabi Aspiring Filmmaker Award went to Eman Al Suwaidi and Aisha Abdullah.
From the Official Gulf Student Short Films competition, the award for the best director went to Melak Abd Ali Mnahi for Cassette (Iraq) while En Let Brise (A Light Breeze) – Denmark, received the award for best short film.
Best Short Film
Ulo Pikkov received the best director award for Keha Malu (Body Memory) in the Official Gulf International Shorts category and Sedaye Baran (The Sound of Rain) – Iran received the award for Best Short Film.
In the Official Gulf Shorts competition Dana Al Mojil received the award for best director for Bilad Al Ajaeb – Kissa Waqae’a (Wonderland: A True Story – Kuwait and Paysikl (Bicycle) from Iraq received the award for Best Short Film.
The award ceremony was attended by Arab and Gulf film celebrities and other distinguished guests. At the closing ceremony, a special recognition was given to veteran Kuwaiti actor Saad Al Faraj.
The twin juries of the festival — The Official Gulf Competition jury and The International Shorts Competition and the Gulf Student Competition jury - were also honoured.
Avant-garde
Additionally, 153 vignettes crafted by avant-garde French filmmaker Gerard Courant, including 134 of the four-minute personal sketches of UAE residents and GFF guests that are now part of the world’s longest movie, Cinematon, were screened.
A total of 155 films from over 40 nations were screened at the week-long festival.
GFF 2012 also screened 39 films in the ‘Cherries of Kiarostami’ programme, which resulted from a 10-day master class conducted by world-renowned Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami at the festival last year.
