Malmö Arab Film Festival's closing: "The Man Who Sold His Skin" is the best film and "Curfew" wins the Audience Award

Malmo - April 11th

Malmö Arab Film Festival (MAFF) concluded its 11th edition, which was held from April 6-11, in a hybrid version between the actual activities in the Swedish city and the virtual once via the Internet..

The Malmö Central Library hosted the closing ceremony during which the official film competitions awards were announced. "The Man Who Sold His Skin" by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania won the Best Film Award, worth 20.000 Swedish kronor. While the audience award granted by the Malmö municipality, Frida Trollmyr (Chairman of the Culture Committee Malmö City) give a speech and awarding
Audience Award to (Curfew) by Egyptian directed Amir Ramses SEK 25,000 (For a full list of awards see end of the article)

The ceremony began at 7 p.m. with a recap video showing the most important moments of the edition, before a welcoming speech from the Torbjörn Nilsson, head of the city library, followed by a speech by Magnus Lunderquist, Culture Committee Chairman of Region Skåne, then Muhammad Kablawi, founder and president of the festival, delivered a speech in which he summarized the most important events and challenges of the edition and he greeted the late Muhammad Qaddura, one of the co-founders of the festival, with screening a video dedicated to his memory.

After a music performance by Frida Höfling, the jury members were presented and the awards of MAFF's two official competitions were announced. The short film competition jury consisted of Lebanese director and producer Manon Nammour, Egyptian director and producer Maggie Anwar, Algerian film critic Faycal Chibani, Bahraini film critic Tariq Albahhar, and Emirati actor Mansoor Alfeeli. While the feature film competition jury was formed by Palestinian director and producer Najwa Najjar, Saudi actress and director Fatima Albanwy, Moroccan film researcher Leila Charadi, Lebanese presenter Raya Abi Rached, as well as Egyptian screenwriter Tamer Habib.

Here is the full list of the 11th edition of Malmö Arab Film Festival winners:

Short Film Competition

- A special mention to "Al Sit" by Sudanese director Suzannah Mirghani

- A special mention to "Tuk Tuk" by Egyptian director Mohamed Kheidr

- Best Short Film Award (15,000 Swedish kronor) to "The Present" by Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi

Feature Film Competition

- Best Screenplay award to Ghazi Zaghbeni, for "The Dilemma" by Ghazi Zaghbeni (Tunisia)

- Best Actor Award to Salim Dau for his role in the film "Gaza Mon Amour" by Arab and Tarzan Nasser (Palestine, France, Germany, Portugal, Qatar)

- Best Actress Award to Naima Lemcherki for her role in "Autumn of Apple Trees" directed by Mohamed Muftakir (Morocco)

- Best Director Award to Abdulaziz Al-Shalahi for his film "The Tambour of Retribution" (Saudi Arabia).

- Special Jury Award (15,000 Swedish kronor) to "Their Algeria" by director Lina Soualem (France, Algeria, Switzerland, Qatar)

- Best Film Award (20,000 Swedish kronor) to "The Man Who Sold His Skin" by Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden)

- Audience Award (awarded by the municipality of Malmö with a value of 25,000 Swedish kronor) to "Curfew" by Amir Ramses (Egypt)