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ADFF Unveils Winners of 2012 Black Pearl, FIPRESCI and NETPAC Awards
Narrative Feature Competition
This competition centers on exciting vision and original
storytelling in narrative feature films by international
filmmakers.
In 2012, the Narrative Feature Competition presented a selection
of 15 films representing 18 countries.
The jury awarded the following Black Pearl
Awards:
Black Pearl Award - Best Narrative Film
Araf/Somewhere in Between, directed by
Yeşim Ustağlu (Turkey, Germany, France)
Special Jury Award
Gebo and the Shadow, directed by Manoel
de Oliveira (Portugal, France)
Best Director from the Arab World
Nouri Bouzid for Hidden
Beauties (Tunisia, France, UAE
Best Actor - in partnership with Jaeger LeCoultre
Gael García Bernal in No
(Chile, USA)
Best Actress - in partnership with Jaeger LeCoultre
Franziska Petri, in Betrayal
(Russia)
The Jury
PRESIDENT: Shabana Azmi, India
Cedomir Kolar, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Samir Farid, Egypt
Niki Karimi, Iran
Ismael Ferroukhi, Morocco
New Horizons Competition
Held for the third time this year, this awards section focuses on
the work of first- and second-time directors from around the world,
featuring fresh styles and challenging ideas in narrative
films.
In 2012, 15 films representing 16 countries competed in the New
Horizons Competition.
The jury awarded the following Black Pearl
Awards:
Black Pearl Award - New Horizons
A Respectable Family, directed by
Massoud Bakhshi (France, Iran)
Because of the new approach using fiction with the current
reality.
Special Jury Award
Beasts of the Southern Wild, directed by
Benh Zeitlin (USA)
We recognise the skills on display here in all the elements of
cinematic language.
Best Film from the Arab World
When I Saw You, directed by Annemarie
Jacir (Jordan, Palestine, UAE)
We loved the way in which Annemarie Jacir approached the
sensitive subject of that crucial period.
Best Director from the Arab World
Hala Lotfy, for Coming Forth By
Day (Egypt, UAE)
We recognise the unusual and stylish visuals which overcome
the style of Arabian and especially Egyptian cinema.
Best Actor
Søren Malling, in A Hijacking
(Denmark)
We consider the entire cast as brilliant, but as we had to
choose only one it is Søren Malling as the Boss.
Best Actress
Golshifteh Farahani, in The Patience
Stone (Afghanistan, France, Germany)
The jury chose Golshifteh Farahani because of her high
performance in carrying the whole story.
Special Mention
A Hijacking, directed by Tobias
Lindholm
For the brilliant screenplay which is skillfully brought alive
cinematically onscreen
The Jury
PRESIDENT: Françoise Bonnot, France
Giorgio Gosetti, Italy
Vimukthi Jayasundara, Sri Lanka
Mohamed Jabarah Al Daradji, Iraq
Nawaf Al-Janahi, United Arab Emirates
Documentary Feature Competition
In 2012, the Documentary Feature Competition comprised 12 films
from 14 countries. The jury awarded the following Black
Pearl Awards:
Black Pearl Award - Best Documentary Film
A World Not Ours, directed by Mahdi
Fleifel (Lebanon, UK, UAE)
For constituting a document about life in the Palestinian
refugee camps that rips you apart, through the use of everyday
language and characters. It projects the essential aspect of the
human spirit.
Special Jury Award
Stories We Tell, directed by Sarah
Polley (Canada)
For its intelligent style that shows that real life can
sometimes be make-believe, and that sometimes in films - as in life
- lies may have the charming ability to show a higher truth.
Best New Director
Lyubov Arkus, for Anton's Right
Here (Russia)
Through its cinematographic writing, it conjugates both poetry
and humanism in an atmosphere of human truth. It equilibrates
form and content in a solid narrative body.
Best Film from the Arab World
Cursed Be the Phosphate, directed by
Sami Tlili (Tunisia, UAE, Lebanon, Qatar)
For successfully depicting ordinary people who rose to the
occasion in response to historical circumstances as agents for
change.
Best Director from the Arab World
Wael Omar and Philippe Dib, for In
Search of Oil and Sand (Egypt, UAE)
For successfully merging two historical timelines and creating
synthesis between past, present, fact and fiction.
The Jury
PRESIDENT: Miguel Littin, Chile
Haile Gerima, Ethiopia
Carles Bosch, Spain
Mohamed Hefzy, Egypt
Safinez Bousbia, Algeria
Showcase
The audience takes on the role of the jury in this competition,
which is open to all films in the Showcase section, as well as the
Opening Night film.
The 2012 Abu Dhabi Film Festival Audience Choice Award goes
to:
Saving Face, directed by Sharmeen
Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge (Pakistan, USA)
- End of Black Pearl Awards -
ADFF FIPRESCI Award 2012
The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) was
created in 1930 to promote and develop international film culture
and safeguard the professional interests of film critics and
journalists. With the protection of the freedom and ethics of the
film press as its main objective, the federation's worldwide
network of national committees also works to expand the idea of
cinema as an art form as well as a tool of cultural education. The
International Film Critics' Award was established to promote film
art and support innovation in cinema.
The ADFF FIPRESCI jury focused on Arab films in the Narrative
Feature Competition, Documentary Feature Competition and the New
Horizons Competition.
The jury awarded the ADFF FIPRESCI Award 2012 to:
Coming Forth by Day, directed by Hala
Lotfy (Egypt, United Arab Emirates)
This is an audacious, personal and profoundly humanistic film
that impressed us with its radical cinematographic language,
uncommon in Arab cinema.
And
A World Not Ours, directed by Mahdi
Fleifel (Lebanon, UK, United Arab Emirates);
A documentary carried by emotions without losing its lucid grip on
reality. It revisits the memory of a Palestinian refugee camp,
spanning from nostalgic childhood recollections till today's
scattered hopes.
THE JURY
PRESIDENT: Barbara Lorey de Lacharriere, France
Fernando Salva, Spain
Essam Zakarea, Egypt
Houda Ibrahim, France
Premendra Mazumder, India
ADFF NETPAC Award 2012
NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) is the leading
platform for the discovery and promotion of Asian cinema. To
acknowledge and recognize the emergence of new cinematic talent
among Asians, it brought the NETPAC Award to international film
festivals. As more Asian films are selected for exhibition to world
audiences, a yardstick for quality was necessary that matched the
competitive spirit fuelling the creative urges of young Asian
filmmakers. The NETPAC Award is now given at 28 international film
festivals in 21 countries on five continents.
The jury awarded the ADFF NETPAC Award 2012 to:
A World Not Ours, directed by Mahdi
Fleifel (Lebanon, UK, United Arab Emirates)
For its heartfelt, whimsical and nostalgic portrait of life in
a Palestinian refugee camp
THE JURY
PRESIDENT: Prasanna Vithanage, Sri Lanka
Nick Palevsky, United States of America
Gautaman Bhaskaran, India
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