The film “Between the Sands” by director Muhammad Al-Atawi won the Golden Palm Award for Best Feature Film at the Saudi Film Festival in its tenth session, which ended on Thursday in the city of Dhahran.
Toleen Essam won the Best Actress Award for her role in the film “Hajan,” and Omar Al-Atawi won the Best Actor Award for the same film.
The Best Cinematography Award went to Ahmed Al-Sufyani and Ricardo Jacques Gil for the film “Between the Sands”, and the Best Editing Award went to Christian Pinto for the film “That Feeling That”.
The Yemeni film “The Weary Ones” won the Golden Palm Award for Gulf Feature Film, and the jury gave a special award in acting to the heroine of the work, Abeer Muhammad.
Mohsen Khaled Al-Khulaifi, one of the producers and makers of the film “The Exhausted,” told Reuters that the two awards brought the film’s tally to 15 awards at the international festivals it participated in. including the 69th Chicago Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival.
Al-Khulaifi confirmed that the film will continue its journey around the world by participating in the Seattle International Film Festival in its 50th session in the United States this month.
In the documentary film competition, the film “Donkey Race” by director Muhammad Baqir won the Golden Palm, and the prize for the best film about the Saudi environment was won by “Horizon”, directed by Fabien Lemeyer .
He won the Golden Palm Award for the Gulf documentary “Bar Sar” from Bahrain, directed by Mohammed Jassim, and the Tuwaiq Mountain Award for the best film about a Saudi city went to “Voices of AlUla” directed by Mitochka Alkova.
In the short film competition, the film “Saleh’s Story” by director Zaki Al Abdullah won the Golden Palm, and the jury prize went to the film “Aidaroos and I” directed by Sarah Balghunaim.
The Bahraini film, “An Excuse More Beautiful than a Sin,” directed by Hashem Sharaf, won the Golden Palm Award for the best short film in the Gulf.
The award for the best animated film went to “Musnad” by director Abdel Rahman Saleh, and the second place went to “Between the Two Benes” directed by Ethar Baamer.
The director of the festival, Ahmed Al-Mulla, said in the last speech: “We bless and congratulate each other for continuing this annual holiday, we are all part of it, we built it together, and with you it is complete.”
He said, “This is how we prepare ourselves every year. We give it with love and draw creative energy from it. We will keep the promise, until we meet again with films and inspiring dreams.”
The festival, organized by the Cinema Association in collaboration with the King Abdulaziz “Ithra” World Culture Center, was launched on May 2, with the participation of more than 70 films.
