Suzannah Mirghani’s 'Cotton Queen' and Mahdi El-Tayeb’s 'Lamp in the Dark' each took home the biggest prize from MAD Solutions which offers a minimum of $50,000 for distribution in the Arab world.
Cairo Film Connection (CFC) has announced the winning projects of its ninth edition, which is being held during Cairo Industry Days in partnership with the Arab Cinema Center at the 44th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) – which is running from November 13 to 22.
Awards totalling $150,000 were up for grabs for 15 film projects at various stages of development and post-production from 10 nations. Of the 15 projects, five were Egyptian.
The ACC Award was given to Yemeni producer Mohammed Al-Jaberi, who will be invited to the Rotterdam Lab in 2023. Al-Jaberi took part in Cairo Film Connection with his film project Let’s Play Soldiers – a documentary directed by Mariam Al-Dhubhani about a 16-year-old child soldier who returns home to become the guardian of his family after the conflict broke his elder brother and father.
MAD Solutions, which is an ACC partner, participated at the CFC for the fourth year in a row, handing out a $50,000 distribution grant to Cotton Queen – a Sudanese film project directed by Suzannah Mirghani and produced by Caroline Daube and Annemarie Jacir.
Cotton Queen is set in a cotton-farming village in Sudan, where Nafisa learns about life and love under the watchful eye of her grandmother – the powerful matriarch Al-Sit. But when the arrival of a young businessman from abroad threatens to disrupt their way of life with a new development plan, Nafisa finds herself at the centre of a power play to determine the future of the village.
MAD Solutions also awarded a $50,000 distribution grant to Mahdi El-Tayeb’s Sudanese film project Lamp in the Dark. The film is about a vehicle driver and a mobile cinema technician who is attacked by gangsters. Later, they are hosted by a family, which includes a son and daughter. The two children then suggest holding a makeshift film screening in the village, which has never seen one before.
Tamer Ashry’s Egyptian film project Over Three Days got a $10,000 prize from Arab Radio and Television (ART) and a $5,000 award from Lagoonie Film Production. The film revolves around Shireen – a 42-year-old lady who discovers her husband has been cheating on her after ten years of marriage. She and her husband then agree to start a three-day countdown to decide if she wants to stay married or file for a divorce.
Other winners included Bad Friend (Egypt), a social drama by Ahmed El Ghoneimy about an upper-middle-class family in Alexandria whose lives are turned upside-down after the disappearance of their matriarch; A Butterfly Hug (Egypt, Sudan), from director Sally Abo Basha, which follows two young Cairenes who are struggling to make a short film despite the illnesses they suffer from; Mehdi Hmili’s The Seasons Of Jannet, which received a $15,000 prize from The Cell for a promotional package of teaser and trailer; and Mohcine Besri’s Bella which was awarded $10,000 from Travellers Media Production.
Amjad Al Rasheed’s Inshallah A Boy picked up The Cell award for a digital camera package and the RISE Studios award, both worth $10,000.
Amer Shomali’s Theft Of Fire won the best media production award of $10,000. The Palestine-Canada production is a docu-fiction about a fictional heist that raises questions about stolen histories.
