Jury Award for Most Promising Filmmaker
Winner: Al-Sit//الست
Country: Sudan, Qatar
Director: Suzannah Mirghani
Length: 20 mins
Synopsis: In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, 15-year-old Nafisa has a crush on Babiker, but her parents have arranged her marriage to Nadir, a young Sudanese businessman living abroad. Nafisa’s grandmother Al-Sit, the powerful village matriarch, has her own plans for Nafisa’s future. But can Nafisa choose for herself?
Jury
Joseph Fahim is an Egyptian film critic and programmer. He is the Arab delegate of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the 2018 curator of London’s Safar Film Fest, a former member of Berlin Critics’ Week and the ex director of programming of the Cairo International Film Festival. He co-authored various books on Arab cinema and has written for numerous outlets around the world, including Middle East Eye, Middle East Institute, BBC, Mubi, Verite, Al Monitor, Al Jazeera, and The National (U.A.E.). To date, his writings have been translated into six different languages. He is also a script consultant and has worked with various funds and producers in the Arab World and Europe.
Walid El Khachab has published in Cairo four poetry collections in Arabic: The Dead do not consume (Al Mawta La Yastahlekoon, 2001); She who is (Allati, 2013); Sudden Moon (Qamar Mofajei’, 2015), I’timad’s Booth (Koshk I’timad, 2019). In 2022, his monograph about legendary Arab comedian Fuad al-Mohandes The Arachitect of Joy (Mohandes al Bahga) was released at Dar al Maraya publishing house, Cairo. He also translated into Arabic Canadian poet’s Mon Latif Ghattas collection, Les Chants du Karawan, and Canadian poetry theorist Paul Zumthor’s Introduction à la poésie orale. He teaches Arabic Studies at York University
Nehal El-Hadi investigates the relationships between the body (racialised, gendered), place (urban, virtual), and technology (internet, health).
She completed a Ph.D. in Planning at the University of Toronto, where her research examined the relationships between user-generated content and everyday public urban life.
As a scholar, her hybrid digital/material research methods are informed by her training and experience as a science and environmental journalist.
Nehal advocates for the responsible, accountable, and ethical treatment of user-generated content in the fields of journalism, planning, and healthcare.
Her writing has appeared in academic journals, general scholarship publications, literary magazines, and several anthologies and edited collections.
Nehal is the Science+Technology Editor at The Conversation Canada, an academic news site, and Editor-in-Chief of Studio Magazine, a biannual print publication dedicated to contemporary Canadian craft and design. She currently holds a residency at Toronto’s Theatre Centre, where she is developing a live arts event that explores surveillance, privacy, and consent.
Nehal sits on the Board of Directors of FiXT POINT Arts & Media and Provocation Ideas Festival. She is a member of the Digital Communities Advisory Panel at the Centre for Free Expression. She was previously a Visiting Scholar at the City Institute at York University.
Jury Award for Best Canadian Short Film
Winner: Storm Child
Country: Canada
Director: Ines Guennaoui
Length: 12 mins
Synopsis: Storm Child is a nightmarish incursion in the tormented mind of a four year old child. Yasmine and her family are Algerian refugees who just arrived in Québec during the infamous 1998 ice storm.
Jury
Maha Al-Saati is an independent, experimental filmmaker interested in exploring women’s stories in the Arab World. She is TIFF Filmmaker Lab 2020 and TIFF Writers’ Studio 2021 Alum, and honorary recipient of the Share Her Journey Award and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) residency 2021. Her short films include Hair: The Story of Grass (18), an official selection of Fantastic Fest 2018, Slamdance 2019, and HollyShorts 2019; Cycle of Apples (19); and Fear: Audibly (17). Her feature project Hajj to Disney was selected for development by the Red Sea Lodge in partnership with TorinoFilmLab.
Anaïs Elboujdaïni is a reporter and the programming director for Vancouver’s MENA Film Festival. She lived and worked for 4 years in British Columbia and now is based in Québec, on Atikamekw traditional territories. She is interested in the dynamics of her indigenous identity as she is equal part Amazigh from Morocco and Québécoise. She coordinated a poetry contest for several years, produced short documentaries and won literary contests. Her interest in films stems from the idea that reality is diverse and that fiction is one of the deepest forms of travel.
Milada Kovacova started as a painter but now makes films and curates. She holds several degrees including a BFA in Film Production from Concordia University. While studying at Concordia, she was awarded the Mel Hoppenheim Award for Outstanding Overall Achievement in the Film Production Program. Her films have shown locally and internationally.
Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film
Winner: Al-Sit//الست
Country: Sudan, Qatar
Director: Suzannah Mirghani
Length: 20 mins
Synopsis: In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, 15-year-old Nafisa has a crush on Babiker, but her parents have arranged her marriage to Nadir, a young Sudanese businessman living abroad. Nafisa’s grandmother Al-Sit, the powerful village matriarch, has her own plans for Nafisa’s future. But can Nafisa choose for herself?