For the production of an Arabic language feature film, Sharjah Film Platform also awarded $54,451.40 to the winner of the Pitching Forum.
At the closing ceremony of Sharjah Film Platform 4, the Sharjah Art Foundation announced the winners for outstanding short and feature-length films in the experimental, documentary and narrative categories.
The films submitted for competition were selected from an international open call, as well as, first and second-time filmmakers were juried by leading filmmakers and industry professionals.
Sharjah Film Platform 4 featured screenings of over 50 films, including world and regional premieres, talks and masterclasses with award-winning filmmakers as well as workshops for children. This year’s festival also included two special programmes: ‘Director in Focus’ highlighting the work of award-winning Palestinian director Michel Khleifi, and ‘Her Journey’, presented in partnership with Istanbul Modern, exploring complex, women-centric stories in Turkish cinema through 10 feature-length, documentary and short films.
The 2021 Sharjah Film Platform winners in the juried competition are Fire in the Mountains by Atjipal Singh (Best Narrative Feature Film), Myth of Manila by Janus Victoria (Best Narrative Short Film), Dance With A Bullet by Dhyaa Joda (Best Documentary Feature Film), Galb’Elchaouf by Abdessamad El Montassir (Best Documentary Short Film), The Timekeepers of Eternity by Aristotelis Maragkos (Best Experimental Feature Film), and The Sky Oscillates Between Eternity and Its Immediate Consequences by Nadim Choufi (Best Experimental Short Film)
The jury also awarded honourable mentions to I Bit My Tongue by Nina Khada (Documentary Short), Zahorí by Marí Alessandrini (Narrative Feature) and The Clocks by Ecem Arslanay and Yiğit Tanel Kaçar (Experimental Short).
The jury members were Bani Khoshnoudi (artist and filmmaker); Akosua Adoma Owusu (filmmaker); Talal Derki (filmmaker); Lamia Joreige (artist, filmmaker); Bettina Steinbrügge (Director, Kunstverein In Hamburg); Halil Altindere (artist, filmmaker); Mike Goodridge (film producer); Renata Santoro (Head of Programming, Giornate Degli Autori); and Hala Lotfy (filmmaker).
A jury of filmmakers and industry experts also announced the winner of this year’s Pitching Forum – Yaser Al Neyadi for his script From 8 to 6. Al Neyadi was awarded AED 200,000 ($54,451.40) to support the production of his feature-length Arabic language screenplay. The Pitching Forum is a part of SFP’s Industry Hub, which returned for its third year and is supported by Sharjah Media City (SHAMS). The Industry Hub offers filmmakers opportunities to develop their projects, receive production funding and secure vital distribution support for completed films through the Virtual Film Distribution Platform.
