During a ceremony held at the Cannes Film Festival in partnership with IEFTA, Arab Cinema Center (ACC) announced the winners of the 6th Critics Awards for Arab Films, which highlights the top Arab films released in 2021. This year, the international jury panel encompasses 167 film critics from 68 countries. The jurors evaluated the nominated films using the Festival Scope digital platform, a partner of ACC.
“In spite of the great variety of this year's nominations, Feathers by director Omar El Zohairy has won three awards. The film is a highly original work that heralds an important new directing talent who is able to bring a fresh perspective on social issues. Congratulations to Feathers, and to all the winners in the other categories, and many thanks to our jury panel for their significant contribution." said Deborah Young, Manager of the Critics Awards for Arab Films
And the Winners Are:
Best Film: Feathers | Director: Omar El Zohairy | Egypt
Best Actor: Ali Suliman | Film: Amira | Palestine
Best Actress: Maisa Abd Elhadi | Film: Huda’s Salon | Palestine
Best Director: Omar El Zohairy|Film: Feathers| Egypt
Best Screenplay: Ahmed Amer – Omar El Zohairy | Film: Feathers | Egypt
Best Documentary: Little Palestine: Diary of A Siege | Director: Abdallah Al-Khatib | Palestine/ Lebanon
The 1st Critics’ Awards for Arab Films was held on the margins of the 70th 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 167 of the most prominent Arab and international film critics from 68 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 2021, 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, Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is a nonprofit organization. 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. ACC also provides networking opportunities with representatives of companies and institutions specialized in co-production and international distribution, among others. ACC's activities vary between film markets, stands, and pavilions, networking sessions and one-on-one meetings for Arab and foreign filmmakers, welcome parties, as well as meetings with international organizations and festivals and the issuance of the Arab Cinema Magazine (distributed at the leading international film festivals and markets).
Furthermore, newsletter subscription is now available on ACC's website, allowing users to obtain digital copies of the Arab Cinema Magazine, as well as news on 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 ACC's partners and their future projects.
ACC also launched an English-language Arab Cinema Guide, available on its website, which is a trailblazing comprehensive cinematic guide that provides a variety of tools presented collectively for the first time to offer information on Arab cinema to filmmakers inside and outside the Arab world. It also aims to facilitate filmmakers' access to international markets and help film industry representatives to easily identify Arab film productions.
