Sixth Youth Cinema and Short Films Festival Concluds Activities at Opera House in Damascus
The Sixth Youth Cinema and Short Films Festival, held by the Culture Ministry’s National Film Organization at Dar Al Assad for Culture and Arts in Damascus, was concluded on Sunday.
More than 70 Arabic films for filmmakers from Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon and Syria were screened during the 6-day cultural event.
The festival included two contests: the first is the Youth Cinema Support Competition dedicated for amateur youths and in which 29 films were screened. The second is the professional Arab films competition in which 21 films from different Arab countries, including six Syrian ones, were screened.
Results of the youth cinema support competition came as follows: “First Face..My Mother” film by director Rabab Mrhege won the festival’s golden award, while the “Blue Bead” film by director Abdul Latif Kan’an got silver award and the “Thief” film by Firas Mohammad won the bronze award.
Best Director Award went to Lubna Badawi for her film “Calmness” and the Jury Award went to “100 Liras” film co-directed by Areej Dawara and Nour Kher al-Anam, while the Best Scenario Award was presented to director Rasha Milhem for her “Restart” film. The film “Absence” by director Husam al-Mughrabi got a compliment from the jury. “100 Liras” also got the Audience Award.
In the second competition-the Arab Professional Film contest- results came as follows: The Tunisian film “Aya” by director Mufeeda Fadeela won Best Film Award. Best Director Award went to Mohamed Nadjib Lamraoui from Algeria for his film “La Page Blanche”, while Best Scenario Award went to scenarist and director Dersaf al-Husni from Tunisia for his film “the Ill-Fated”. The Jury award went to two films: “Curtain” for Director Sara Mizher from Lebanon and “defect” by Syrian Director al-Sadir Masoud.
Culture Minister: Youths are real source of inspiration of any art work
On the sidelines of the concluding ceremony, Culture Minister Mohmmad al-Ahmad told journalists that “youths are the real source of inspiration of any art work in this world which always needs new blood to continue producing creative works.
“The Youth Cinema and Short Films Festival is a project launched by the Culture Ministry six years ago under very difficult circumstances in Syria. He stressed that the festival proves that great nations invent solutions and discover talents at hard times,” al-Ahmad said, pointing out that “this edition of the festival, as previous ones, has introduced distinguished talents that will carry the torch of cinema in future, because cinema is the memory of peoples.”
During the festival several Syrian and Arab filmmakers and actors were honored, among them were Dima Qandalift and Bassam Lutfi from Syria, Karmen Lubbus from Lebanon and Sumayya al-Kashab from Egypt.
Hamda Mustafa