Red Sea Film Festival Winners: ‘Hanging Gardens’ By Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji Takes Best Film Award

Iraqi filmmaker Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji picked up the Golden Yusr for Best Feature Film at the Red Sea Film Festival with his debut feature Hanging Gardens.

Co-written by Daradji with Margaret Glover, the film follows As’ad, a 12-year-old rubbish picker, who adopts an American sex doll from the Baghdad dumps, and crosses into a perilous red zone, finding himself caught in the crossfire. The film won Venice’s 2021 edition of Final Cut for the best film in post-production.

The award was handed out at a ceremony on Thursday evening by Red Sea Festival Execs Mohammed Al Turki, Jomana Al-Rashid, and Egyptian actress Yousra.

Related Story

Saudi Arabia To Launch $233m Film Financing Program Open To Local & Professional Entities in Q1 2023

This year’s competition jury was headed by director Oliver Stone. He was joined by Egyptian star Nelly Karim, best known internationally for her performance in The Blue Elephant and Clash, Tunisian Oscar-nominated The Man Who Sold His Skin director Kaouther Ben Hania, Georgian film director Levan Koguashvili (Brighton 4th) and Palestinian actor Ali Suleiman (Huda’s Salon, 200 Meters).

Running December 1-10 in the port city of Jeddah, the Red Sea Film Festival took place five years to the week that news first broke that Saudi Arabia was lifting its 35-year cinema ban as part of sweeping reforms to open up its society and the economy.

The reforms have been broadly welcomed by the international community but questions continue to swirl around the country’s human rights record.

Shekhar Kapur’s cross-cultural romance What’s Love Got to Do with It? opened the festival with Kapur; writer and producer Jemima Khan; actors Shabana Azmi, Sajal Ali, and Jeff Mirza; and DJ and music producer Naughty Boy in attendance.

This year’s festival selection included 131 feature films and shorts from 61 countries with 34 World Premieres, 17 Arab Premieres, and 47 MENA Premieres.

More to follow

Must Read Stories

Matt Damon & Casey Affleck Lead Apple’s ‘The Instigators’ With Doug Liman Directing

Tom Cruise Set For PGA’s 2023 David O. Selznick Achievement Award

James Gunn Responds To ‘Wonder Woman 3’ Axing, Possible DC Franchise Turnover

Taron Egerton, Denis Lehane & Richard Plepler Reteam For Apple TV+ ‘Firebug’ Series

Read More About:

Source: Read Full Article