Last night, in Tangiers, Morocco, the feature film “Contact Street” by Ismail Al-Iraqi won the Grand Prix of the 22nd National Film Festival, with 19 prizes distributed in the three competitions, which were won by films produced since the last session of the festival in 2020. .
Hakim Belabbas’ “If He Was Overthrowing Lahiout” and “Mica” by Ismail Ferroukhi (shared) won the Jury Prize for the Feature Film Competition. While actor Younes Bawab won the award for the best male role for his role in the movie “Jabal Musa” directed by Idriss El Marini, and Jalila Al-Talmisi won the award for the best female role for her role in the movie “Red Fishes” by Abdel Salam Kalai, which won the award for best screenplay, while the packaging award went to Hakim Bel Abbas. Ezz Al-Arab Al-Kaghat won the second award for the best male role for his role in the movie “Mika,” while Fatima Atef won the second best female role award for her role in the movie “Zanqa Contact,” and Nabil Ayush won the best director award for his movie “Ali Your Voice” (Raise Your Voice), while the film “Salty Locusts” by Idriss Al-Roukh and “Between the Waves” by Hadi Awlad Mohand (equally) won the first work award.
The sound award went to Hamza Faker for the movie “Anato” by Fatima Boubekdi, the production award for Hassan Chaoui for the movie “The Good,” the photography award for Ali Benjelloun for the film “Habiba” by Hassan Benjelloun, and the original music award for Idris El Maloumi for the film “Fatima Mernissi the Unforgettable Sultana.” For Mohamed Abdel Rahman Tazi.
As for the award for the Short Narrative Film Competition, the film “A Tale” by Mohamed Bahari won the grand prize, while the film “Ziad” by Younes El-Mogahed won the jury award for the best screenplay, and the film “Days of Spring” by Emad Badi won the jury award (equally) with the film “Days of Spring” Silence of Aida, by Kamal Al-Masoudi.
The results of the documentary film competition resulted in the “School of Hope” by Muhammad Al-Aboudi winning the grand prize, the film “Sheikh Maa Al-Enein, the Mujahid Imam and the Divine World” by Ezz Al-Arab Al-Alawi, and the film “Bollywood Morocco” by Abdelilah Al-Gohari (equally) with the jury prize.
As for the Criticism Award offered by the Moroccan Association of Film Critics, it won the long film “If He Was Overthrowing Lahiout” by Hakim Bel Abbas, the short film “Betrayal” by Salma Lakhmas, and the documentary film “La Muallaqat” by Maryam Addo.
The Film Clubs Award, presented by the National Film Clubs Association, went to the documentary film “School of Hope” by Mohamed Al-Aboudi, the short film “A Tale” by Mohamed Bahari, and the long film “Between the Waves” by Hadi Awlad Mohand.
The jury of the feature film competition was chaired by Idriss Anwar, with director Lahcen Zainoun, writer and poet Soraya Magdalene, film critic Mohamed Tarous, media and film critic Bilal Marmid, composer Belaid El-Akkaf and writer Bouchra Bouluiz, as members. Director Laila Triki chaired the short film competition jury, with director Ghazlan Assif, journalist Ikram Zayed, poet Mohamed Abed and fashion designer Bouchra Boumarij, while the jury included the long documentary competition, as well as its president, director Daoud Awlad El-Sayed, director Maryam Ait Belhossein, and researcher. Abdel Wahab Sibawayh.
In addition to the awarding of the winners, the closing ceremony of the festival witnessed the honoring of director Eza Jenini, Houssein Boudih, president of the Moroccan Chamber of Cinemas, and journalist and screenwriter, Ali Hassan.
The opening ceremony of the festival, which was imposed by the (Corona) pandemic, postponed for two years, since the last session organized in 2020, witnessed a special tribute to the late critic and filmmaker Nour El-Din Al-Sayel, as well as producer and director Souad Al-Mariqi and director Mohamed Abdel-Rahman Al-Tazi, while the paragraph “In Memory» artists and directors have left in the last two years.
The session devoted a segment to “The Film Market”, which discussed film distribution and exploitation in the era of digitization and new forms of presentation and distribution. It also scheduled professional meetings that concerned the reality of national cinema and the prospects for its development, while presenting the cinematic output for the years 2020 and 2021.
On the sidelines of the festival, it also organized the fourth session of the Ivorian Film Week in Morocco, in order to consolidate relations between the two countries, and to activate the requirements of the co-production and film exchange agreement between the Moroccan Film Center and the Ivorian Film Office.
