The 2023 Un Certain Regard selection included 20 feature films.
Sudanese and Moroccan filmmakers won awards in the Un Certain Regard category at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
Mohamed Kordofani’s Goodbye Julia, the first Sudanese film to be chosen for Cannes’ official selection, won the Freedom Prize, while Les Meutes by Moroccan filmmaker Kamal Lazrek won the Jury’s Prize.
Lazraq’s feature debut Hounds, featuring Ayoub Elaid and Abdellatif Masstouri, is set in working-class Casablanca where a father and son who work for the mob find themselves tasked with kidnap.
Goodbye Julia follows the story of Mona — a northern Sudanese retired singer in a tense marriage — who is wracked by guilt after covering up a murder. In an attempt to make amends, she takes in the deceased’s southern Sudanese widow, Julia, and her son, Daniel, into her home.
Unable to confess her transgressions to Julia, Mona decides to leave the past behind and adjust to a new status quo, unaware that the country’s turmoil may find its way into her home and put her face to face with her sins.
The jury was presided over by John C. Reilly and also included Paula Beer, Davy Chou, Alice Winocour and Émilie Dequenne.
The 2023 Un Certain Regard selection included 20 feature films, eight of which are first features also competing for the Caméra d’Or.
