Cairo wraps up 36th annual film festival

Closing the 36th Cairo Film Festival was the festival’s awards ceremony with prizes handed out in front of Giza’s famed pyramids. Winning the coveted Golden Pyramid Award for best film was ‘Melbourne’, a story of a young Iranian couple’s experience in Australia. Iranian director Nima Javidi was unable to attend the ceremony to pick up the award, as he had been denied an entry visa to Egypt.

Palestinian actor, Khaled Abol-Naga, won the Silver Pyramid for best actor in ‘Oyoun El Haramiyyeh’ or the ‘Eyes of Thieves’. Set during the Second Intifada in 2002, the film depicts the harsh realities of life for Palestinians under Israeli occupation.

Winning the award for best actress was Adele Haenel for her role as a Madeline, a tough and paranoid nihilist, in the French romantic-comedy ‘Love at First Fight’. The best screenwriting award, meanwhile, went to Brazilian director Ale Abreu for his animation ‘The Boy and the World’.

Margarita Manda picked up the best director award for her film ‘Forever’, which depicts a married couple, Anna and Costa, whose lives are marred by loneliness and monotony. Meanwhile, cinematographer Zaki Areg, from the host country, Egypt, was recognised for best artistic contribution with the film ‘Bab al-Wada’. 

The festival is the Arab world’s oldest celebration of film, and the only international competitive feature film festival to be recognised by the Fédération Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films in Africa and the Middle East.

This article is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.