Jury Award for Most Promising Filmmaker
Winner: In the Middle//في المنتصف
Country: Yemen, Qatar, Russia
Director: Mariam Al Dhubhani
Length: 14 mins
Synopsis: In a rarely seen perspective of war, we follow Ali—a Yemeni soldier on tour in the temporary capital of Aden. Leaving his hopes, dreams, and education behind to join the military, Ali dutifully sits at his checkpoint, performing a mundane task that he is clearly overqualified to do. His story represents the majority of youth in the country, people who are unable to just ‘live’, but instead are forced to continually struggle to survive.
Jury
Sadiya Ansari is an award-winning journalist based in London.
Her work — including essays, features, Q&As and books reviews — has appeared in the Guardian, VICE, Refinery29, the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Reader’s Digest and more.
She has worked as a Professor of Journalism at Centennial College, managing editor of features at Global News, staff editor at Chatelaine and has reported for the Toronto Star, produced TV for CBC News, edited opinion for HuffPost Canada, and covered arts for the Canadian Press.
She is co-founder of the Canadian Journalists of Colour, a 2021 R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellow, and a 2023–24 Asper Visiting Professor at the University of British Columbia. She has served as a judge for the Digital Publishing Awards and the Amnesty International Canada Media Awards.
Her work has also been supported by the International Center for Journalists, Journalismfund Europe, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council. She holds a Masters of Public Administration from Queen’s University and a Masters of Journalism from the University of British Columbia.
Teyama Alkamli is an award-winning Syrian-Canadian writer, director, and producer living in Toronto. She is an alumna of DocNomads, the European Mobile Film School, Hot Docs Emerging Filmmaker Lab, the Canadian Film Centre’s Director Lab, and a current TIFF Talent Accelerator participant.
Teyama’s film, Hockey Mom, was awarded Best Documentary Program at the 2021 Canadian Screen Awards. Her other works have screened at international film festival such as Doc Lisboa, TIFF, and the Berlinale. She is currently developing her narrative feature debut, My Name is Jala.
Aisha Jamal is a filmmaker and film programmer based in Toronto, Canada. Her films have played venues and festivals world wide. Her work often centers on people and their resilience in life. Aisha’s feature film debut A KANDAHAR AWAY, about her family’s connection the small Saskatchewan, Canada hamlet of Kandahar, premiered in 2019 at the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival in Toronto, Canada and is currently available to stream on CBC Gem and playing on television on the documentary channel. Her previous short films include the award winning THE LONG WAY HOME (2017) and SEEDS OF THE PAST (2016). She recently directed, co-produced and co-wrote the documentary web series HOW WE DIE, an eleven part series about rethinking our relationship to death and dying. Aisha’s short, Field Notes, will be screening at Hot Docs Film Festival this year. aishajamalfilms.com
Audience Choice Award
Winner: Maradona’s Legs//اجرين مارادونا
Countries: Palestine, Germany
Director: Firas Khoury
Length: 20 mins
Synopsis: During the 1990 World Cup, two young Palestinian boys are looking for “Maradona’s legs”; the last missing sticker that they need in order to complete their world cup album and win a free Atari.