While the fourth edition of Jeddah’s Red Sea Film Festival will continue unspooling until 14 December, the Saudi film gathering announced its winners at a star-studded event on the evening of 12 December. After honorary awards were bestowed upon Indian actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas and US thesp Viola Davis, the festival prizes were handed out, with Red Path [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Lotfi Achour triumphing in the main competition for features by collecting the Red Sea’s Golden Yusr (with yusr signifying “comfort”, “prosperity” or “good fortune” in Arabic, also referring to a black coral endemic to the eponymous sea used to create prayer beads).

The Red Sea features jury was chaired by Spike Lee, who was joined by Egyptian-Austrian writer-director Abu Bakr Shawky, UK actor Minnie Driver, Turkish actress Tûba Büyüküstün and US actor-producer Daniel Dae Kim. Achour also secured the Yusr Best Director Award for the Tunisian-set Red Path, which world-premiered this summer in Locarno’s Cineasti del Presente programme and follows a young shepherd boy who finds fantastical ways to cope with trauma after witnessing the Islamic State behead his cousin.

Mahdi Fleifel’s To a Land Unknown [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Mahdi Fleifel
scheda film] also received double gongs – namely, the festival’s second prize, the Silver Yusr, and the Yusr Best Actor Award for Palestine’s Mahmood Bakri. The Yusr Best Screenplay Award went to Iraqi-US filmmaker Oday Rasheed for Songs of Adam [+leggi anche:
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Saudi actress Roula Dakheelallah won the Chopard Emerging Saudi Talent Award for her role in My Driver and I by Saudi actress and debuting filmmaker Ahd Kamel, which screened in the festival’s Arab Spectacular strand. The film, loosely inspired by Kamel’s childhood and set before Riyadh lifted the country’s ban on women driving in 2018, tells of a strong-willed girl (played by Dakheelallah) who forms an unlikely friendship with her Sudanese chauffeur and desires to take the wheel. The AlUla Audience Award for International Film, for which only movies with no Saudi involvement were eligible, went to Lawrence Valin's Little Jaffna [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lawrence Valin
scheda film], which played in the Festival Favourites section.

Here is the full list of winners of the Red Sea Film Festival:

Red Sea: Competition

Golden Yusr Best Feature Film
Red Path [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Lotfi Achour (Tunisia/France/Belgium/Poland/Saudi Arabia/Qatar)

Silver Yusr Feature Film
To a Land Unknown [+leggi anche:
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Yusr Best Director
Lotfi Achour – Red Path

Yusr Jury Prize
Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo – Khaled Mansour (Egypt/Saudi Arabia)

Yusr Best Actor
Mahmoud Bakri – To a Land Unknown

Yusr Best Actress
Mariam Sherif – Snow White (Egypt)

Yusr Best Screenplay
Songs of Adam [+leggi anche:
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Yusr Cinematic Achievement
To Kill a Mongolian Horse - Xiaoxuan Jiang (Malaysia/Hong Kong/USA/South Korea/Japan/Thailand)

Red Sea: Shorts Competition

Golden Yusr Best Short Film
Hatch – Alireza Kazemipour, Panta Mosleh (Canada/Iran)

Silver Yusr Short Film
Alazar – Beza Hailu Lemma (Ethiopia/Canada/France)

Short Special Mention
Children of Barzagh – Ahmed Khattab (United Arab Emirates)

Other awards

Asharq Best Documentary Award
State of Silence - Santiago Maza (Mexico)

Chopard Emerging Saudi Talent Award
Roula Dakheelallah – My Driver and I (Saudi Arabia/UK)

AlUla Audience Award – Saudi Film
Hobal – Abdulaziz Alshlahei (Egypt)

AlUla Audience Award – International Film
Little Jaffna [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lawrence Valin
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