News

The Fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff) came to a crescendo with the naming of the winners of this year’s prestigious Yusr Awards.

The features jury, Tûba Büyüküstün, Minnie Driver, Daniel Dae Kim, and Abu Bakr Shawky, led by Jury President Spike Lee deliberated to finally select winners across 16 feature films in competition, while the shorts jury Hamzah Jamjoom, Ramata-Toulaye Sy, and Ke-Xi Wu judged across the short film offering of Rsiff 2024.

Red Path (Tunisia) directed by Lotfi Achour was awarded the prestigious Golden Yusr for Best Feature Film. An extraordinary journey into the wounded psyche of a child in a war zone, Red Path is the third feature film by director Lotfi Achour, and it had its world premiere at the Locarno Festival in Switzerland. With this film, we observe the development of Tunisian cinema, its craftsmanship, and its distinctive presence in this edition of the festival.

Tunisia’s “Red Path,” directed by Lotfi Achour, was awarded the Golden Yusr for best feature film Thursday at the Red Sea Film Festival awards ceremony, where honorary awards were bestowed on Viola Davis and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Sarah Jessica Parker, Dev Patel, John Boyega and Nick Jonas were among the star guests.

Johnny Depp’s “Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness” screened as the festival’s final gala screening, with Depp attending with star Riccardo Scamarcio.

“Red Path,” described as “a journey into the wounded psyche of a child in a war zone,” is the third feature film by Achour. It had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. The Golden Yusr comes with a $100,000 cash prize.

Achour also took home Red Sea’s Yusr prize for best director, which comes with a $10,000 prize.

The awards were bestowed by a features jury led by its president Spike Lee,...

Tunisian director Lotfi Achour’s Red Path won the Yusr Award for best competition film and the best director honor at the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during its Thursday evening awards ceremony that also saw Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Viola Davis being honored.

The Silver Yusr Feature Film Award went to Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown, a drama about young Palestinians caught in an eternal state of exile. Little Jaffna, starring and directed by Lawrence Valin, was honored with the AlUla Audience Award International Film, with Hobal from director Abdulaziz Alshlahei getting the Saudi film audience award.

“Ashraf, a shepherd boy working with his teenage cousin in impoverished northern Tunisia faces the unimaginable when Islamic State terrorists set on them and behead his cousin Nizar in front of him,” says a synopsis for Red Path. “Ashraf has no...

Tunisian drama Red Path, directed by Lotfi Achour, scooped the Golden Yusr for best film and the prize for best director at the 4th Red Sea International Film Festival on Thursday (December 12).

The main award was presented by jury head and Oscar-winning US filmmaker Spike Lee at a ceremony in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Scroll down for full list of winners

On stage, Lee declared that it was also Achour’s birthday, meaning the best film and director awards are quite the present, coming with cash prizes of $100,000 and $30,000 respectively.

The film, which premiered at Locarno, is inspired by the true...

Tunisia director Lotfi Achour’s Red Path has won best film and director at the fourth edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival.

The drama was among 15 titles from the Middle East, Africa, and, for the first time, Asia competing for the festival’s Yusrs awards.

Red Path, which world premiered at Locarno, revolves around a shepherd boy who is traumatized when his teenager cousin is beheaded by Islamic State terrorists in front of him. He brings the head back to his family, but recovering the teenage boy’s body becomes a challenge with the terrorists remaining a threat in the backdrop.

This year’s jury for the main feature film competition was presided over by Spike Lee, with support from Egyptian director Abu Bakr Shawky, UK actor Minnie Driver, Turkish actress Tûba Büyüküstün and U.S. actor and producer Daniel Dae Kim

Thursday evening’s ceremony kicked...

There is a lesson in determination to be found in Danish-Palestinian Mahdi Fleifel‘s latest feature, To A Land Unknown. Remarkably, the film, which spent years in development, and bounced between producers, finally went into production in November 2023 and was premiering on the red carpet at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section six months later in May 2024. It speaks to Fleifel and producer Geoff Arbourne‘s unwavering commitment to getting this story told, and it’s a journey they shared at the Red International Film Festival.

To A Land Unknown follows Chatila (Mahmoud Bakri) and Reda (Aram Sabbah), Palestinians stuck in Athens, who are trying to scrape together money for passports, so they relocate to Germany and start a new life.…...

Palestinian director Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays has won the Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos prize for best film at the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which ran from October 31-November 10.

The family drama centring on an Arab-speaking Israeli family premiered earlier this year in Venice’s Horizons strand, winning best screenplay. Copti had previously won the best film and screenplay prizes at Thessaloniki in 2009 for his Academy Award nominated Ajami.

The Silver Alexander for best director went to Belgian Leonardo van Dijl for his debut feature Julie Keeps Quiet, winner of the Sacd award in Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar.

The jury of the international competition,...

Israel's Independence Day, which is celebrated in all glory in the country, actually coincides with the commemoration of Al-Nakba (The Catastrophe), a day the Palestinians commemorate the 1948 events that led to their dispossession and displacement from Mandatory Palestine. Firas Khoury, in his debut movie, uses the particular concept in order to present a coming-of-age story with intense social, political and historical repercussions, by focusing on the lives of youths whose Palestinian parents chose to actually stay in Israel.

“Alam” Premieres on VOD & Digital on April 26, courtesy of Film Movement

17-year-old Tamer is an artistic youth who has troubles at school, as, just like his best friends, Shekel and Rida, he spends most of his time hanging out on the street, searching for way to buy a joint, playing video games, talking about girls, and in general, slacking out. However, when a beautiful new student, Maysaa', joins the classroom, she draws...

Palestinian director Firas Khoury’s debut feature Alam has triumphed at the 44th Cairo International Film Festival, winning its Golden Pyramid Award for Best Film, best actor for Mahmoud Bakri and the Audience Award.

The coming-of-age tale, which world premiered in Toronto, explores the reality of Palestinian teenagers growing up within Israeli borders.

Bakri stars as a high-school student who gets involved in an operation to replace the Israeli flag flying from his school with a Palestinian one, as Israeli celebrates Independence Day and Palestinians commemorate Nakba, or the catastrophe.

The picture, which is sold internationally by MPM Premium, was acquired by Film Movement for North America earlier this year.

The Silver Pyramid special jury award for best director went to Belgium’s Emmanuelle Nicot for Dalva, a sensitive portrait of a young girl as she rebuilds her trust in life after being sexually abused.

Big screen debutant Zelda Samson...

Palestinian filmmaker Firas Khoury’s fiery coming-of-age drama “Alam” (The Flag) took home the Golden Pyramid at the Cairo Intl. Film Festival, which wrapped with a glitzy award ceremony in the Egyptian capital on Tuesday night.

Khoury’s politically charged debut, which world premiered at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, struck a chord with both the international jury, headed by Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase, and moviegoers in Cairo, who also handed “Alam” the audience award. At a rousing Middle East premiere on Nov. 18, moviegoers burst into applause several times during the screening.

Khoury, who addressed the audience at Cairo’s Opera House with a pre-recorded message, was unable to attend the festival. The director, an Israeli citizen traveling on a Palestinian passport, was not granted a visa by Egyptian authorities.

“Alam” follows a Palestinian-Israeli teen who undergoes a political awakening sparked by a pretty, outspoken girl from his high school class,...

19B wins three awards including Fipresci prize.

Firas Khoury’s Alam, a coming-of-age drama about Palestinians growing up in Israel, has won 2022 Cairo International Film Festival’s Golden Pyramid for best film in the international competition.

‘Alam’: Cairo Review

Alam also took the audience award while Mahmoud Bakri shared the best actor prize with Maher Elkheir for Ali Cheri’s The Dam. The best actress award went to Zelda Samson for Love according To Dalva by Emmanuelle Nicot, who earned the Silver Pyramid special jury award for best director.

The Bronze Pyramid Award for best first/second work went...

In the gripping, naturalistic drama “The Flag” (“Alam”), a Palestinian-Israeli teen, living in a village in the Galilee, undergoes a political awakening catalyzed by a pretty, outspoken girl from his high school class. He joins her, along with some of his buddies, to secretly replace the Israeli flag flying from their school’s rooftop with a Palestinian one on the eve of a visit by a prominent Israeli official.

Encompassing a love story and a coming-of-age story, “The Flag” is the first feature directed and written by Firas Khoury, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, known for his prize-winning shorts “Maradona’s Legs” and “Yellow Mums.” The producers include Marie-Pierre Macia and Claire Gadéa from MPM Film (France), Melik Kochbati from Paprika Films (Tunisia) and Ossama Bawardi of Philistine Films (Jordan). Boasting development dollars and support from some of the world’s most prestigious and competitive international funds and ateliers, “The...