Courtesy of DIFF website
The Dubai International Film Festival celebrated the end of a successful season with an award ceremony on 16 December. This year DIFF included the screening of 158 films in different competitions, workshops and lectures.
Egyptian films were represented in all applicable categories and on the closing night of the festival several awards were won by Egyptian entries.
During the opening ceremony, Egyptian actor Mahmoud Abdel Aziz received the Lifetime Achievement award. Abdel Aziz became famous in the 1970s and as his popularity grew he chose to accept interesting and challenging roles, in productions like Al Ar (Shame) in 1982. Abdel Aziz is still one of Egypt’s most popular actors, both on the big and small screen.
In the Muhr Arab Short Film category Noor won the award for Best Film, which relates the story of a small boy in a poor Cairo neighbourhood who wants to hang up lights for Ramadan.
Amr Waked won the Best Actor award in the Muhr Arab Feature category for his role in Winter of Discontent. Ibrahim El Batout’s film tells the story of both personal revolutions as well as the Egyptian revolution through three characters, an activist, a journalist and a government security officer whose lives are intricately interwoven.
Egyptian film Chaos, Disorder won the special jury prize in the Muhr Arab Feature category. The film tells the story of three friends, Zaki, Mounir and Mona who live in a small community where they struggle for a semblance of a normal life.
Both men compete fiercely for Manal’s affections and football becomes their chosen arena to settle their scores. The film is praised for the way it shows life inside the small, closed environment where the three main protagonists live.
