A Successful Conclusion To The 7th Arab Film Festival in Zurich!

The seventh Arab Film Festival in Zurich concluded with an award ceremony that witnessed a great interaction by the audience. The feature film “ Aicha ” won the Best Film Award, directed by Mehdi Barsaoui, and the award was received by the protagonist of the film, the brilliant Tunisian actress Fatima Safar, who played a distinctive role, while the Best Director Award was awarded to the feature documentary film “White Lie”, a Tunisian-Egyptian-Qatari-Saudi production by director Asmaa Al-Madir.

For the first time, the festival dedicated the Audience Award, which was won by Iraqi-Dutch filmmaker Weam Al-Zabari for his feature-length documentary Abi, Noor and Me.

The “Animation Lab” attracted attention as a pioneering step towards fostering collaboration between Swiss and Arab filmmakers. The Lab's jury, consisting of Maryam Essa Al-Khelaifi, Ivana Kvesic, and Kat Woodtley, was introduced to a range of new animation talent with the support of Harvard University's Animation Department and the Fantosh International Festival, and the event was also supported by the Zurich Film Foundation.

While the awards are sponsored by Katara Studios in Qatar and Concave Studios in Egypt, the jury and participants emphasized the importance of continuing this initiative in the coming years. The four projects that won the awards were: An Exceptional Plant by Ahmad Al-Houli (Kuwait/Switzerland), Once Upon a Place by Raghad Al-Barqi (Saudi Arabia), Seven Mountains and Seven Seas by Noel Kesrouani (Lebanon), and Wild Flower by Jinan Dagher (Lebanon).

One of the new events in this year's edition - which the audience liked - was the “Virtual Reality” event, which gave the audience a unique opportunity to interact with current issues affecting the Arab world and the possibility of discussing and dialoguing with the protagonists of the experience, and the audience requested that this event continue in future editions of the festival.

At the conclusion of the event, the festival thanked all its supporters, including the City of Zurich, the Canton of Zurich, and the SüdKulturFonds of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The Catholic and Reformed Church of the Canton of Zurich and other cultural initiatives.

Several Arab festivals have collaborated with the Arab Film Festival in Zurich, with the Saudi Film Festival helping to organize the Saudi committee, and the Carthage Film Festival, the Cairo International Festival, the Rabat Festival and the Tripoli Film Festival contributing to its artistic enrichment.