Feature Film Winners

• October 19, 2012
• Article

19.10.2012 - On Friday night, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival announced the winners of the 2012 Black Pearl Awards for the feature-length films in its programme. Araf/Somewhere in Between, the latest drama from Turkish director Yeşim Ustaoğlu, won the Black Pearl Award in the Narrative Competition. A Respectable Family, from Iranian filmmaker Massoud Bakshi, won the Black Pearl Award in the New Horizons Competition. A World Not Ours, Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel's meditation about growing up in a refugee camp in Lebanon, won the Black Pearl Award in the Documentary Competition.

Fleifel's film, which was supported by ADFF's SANAD post-production fund, also took home two collateral awards: it won the NETPAC Award, which recognises outstanding Asian cinema; and it shared the FIPRESCI Award with Egyptian director Hala Lotfy's Coming Forth by Day, which was also funded by SANAD and screened in the New Horizons Competition. Lotfy also won Best Director from the Arab World in the same category.

Gael García Bernal won Best Actor in the Narrative Competition for his role in Chilean director Pablo Larraín's political drama No. German star Franziska Petri won Best Actress in the Narrative Competition for her performance in Betrayal, the romantic noir from Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov. Søren Malling, star of Danish director Tobias Lindholm's A Hijacking, won Best Actor in the New Horizons Competition; while Iranian star Golshifteh Farahani won Best Actress in New Horizons for her role in Afghani director Atiq Rahimi's The Patience Stone.

Gebo and the Shadow, from 103-year-old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, won the Special Jury Award in the Narrative Competition. Benh Zeitlin's acclaimed indie fantasy Beasts of the Southern Wild won the Special Jury Award in the New Horizons Competition; while Canadian filmmaker Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell won the Special Jury Award in the Documentary Competition.

Tunisia's Nouri Bouzid won Best Director in the Narrative Competition. Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir's drama When I Saw You won Best Film from the Arab World in the New Horizons Competition; while Cursed Be the Phosphate, from Tunisian filmmaker Sami Tlili,won Best Film from the Arab World in the Documentary Competition. Both of those films were also supported by ADFF's SANAD fund.

Two iconic actresses were presented with Lifetime Achievement Awards: legendary Italian star Claudia Cardinale, who is featured in Gebo and the Shadow; as did beloved Egyptian performer Sawsan Badr. Both were present on the evening.

Three separate juries decided on the award winners in the three competitions this week. The Narrative Competition president was Indian actress and statesperson Shabana Azmi; French editor Françoise Bonnot was president of the New Horizons jury; while Chilean filmmaker and novelist Miguel Littín led the Documentary Competition jury.

Saving Face, the Oscar-winning documentary from co-directors Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge, about Festival guest Dr. Mohammad Jawad's efforts to help disfigured Pakistani women, took the Audience Choice Award.

Narrative Competition

Black Pearl Award - Narrative: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 (Tunisia)

Best Actor - in partnership with Jaeger LeCoultre: Gael García Bernal, No (Chile, USA)

Best Actress - in partnership with Jaeger LeCoultre: Franziska Petri, Betrayal (Russia)

New Horizons / Afaq Jadida Competition

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, 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, 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, The Patience Stone (Afghanistan, France, Germany)
The jury chose Golshifteh Farahani because of her high performance in carrying the whole story.

Jury Special Mention:A Hijacking, directed by Tobias Lindholm (Denmark)
For the brilliant screenplay which is skillfully brought alive cinematically onscreen

Documentary Competition

Black Pearl Award - Documentary:A World Not Ours, directed by Mahdi Fleiefel (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, 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, In Search of Oil and Sand (Egypt, UAE)
For successfully merging two historical timelines and creating synthesis between past, present, fact and fiction.

Showcase

Audience Choice Award:Saving Face, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge (Pakistan, USA)

Collateral Awards

NETPAC Award: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

FIPRESCI Award:A World Not Ours, directed by Mahdi Fleifel (Lebanon, UK, United Arab Emirates); and Coming Forth by Day, directed by Hala Lotfy (Egypt, United Arab Emirates)