Iranian movie bags Dagger Award at film festival

Muscat: The Iranian movie ‘Al Hares’, directed by Sadek Abu Talib, won the Dagger Award in the 11th Muscat International Festival, which ended on Thursday. Best Director Award went to Kuwait’s Ahmed al Khadari for ‘Amakor’. The Best Actor Award was claimed by Egypt’s Zafar al Abdine for ‘Nose and 3 Eyes’, while the Best Actress Award went to Morocco’s Sonia Akasha for ‘Casablanca’s Divorcees’. The special jury prize was given to Nilanjana Sha Sudha.

The prizes were given to the winners by HH Sayyidah Hujaija bint Jaifer al Said. She congratulated the winners across five categories: feature films, Omani short films, documentaries, Omani short documentaries, and animation movies. The festival featured 56 films from 11 countries. Oman’s ‘Al Mubadala’, directed by Yasser Ahmed, won the jury award. The jury was headed by Ghita al Khayyat (Morocco) and comprised Sabrina Cleaver from the Netherlands, Magdi Ahmed from Egypt, Essam al Zadjali from Oman, and Philip Ronald from Britain.

Omani short films

‘Dayanat Al Maa’, directed by Haitham Suleiman, won the Dagger Award for best Omani short narrative film. Saleh al Raisi received the Best Actor Award for ‘Al Fa and Beta’, and Hamza al Hashmi won Best Actress for ‘Dayana Al Maa’. The jury award went to ‘Al Fa and Beta’ by Asim al Hashmi. The jury was led by Saad Hindawi from Egypt and consisted of Ahmed al Hamdani and Ibrahim al Balushi from Oman and Hamid al Hawij from Syria.

Documentaries

‘The Hidden Beauty of Iraq’ by Sahim Omar Khalifa and Jürgen Böttcher won the Dagger Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary. Frederic won the Best Cinematography Award for ‘House of Wonders’ from Oman. The jury award went to Anis al Aswad for ‘Allah’s Borders’ from Tunisia and Fouad al Suweiba for ‘Maul Al Maa’ from Morocco. The jury was led by Oman’s Abdullah al Sha’ili and consisted of Jean Saragolo from Turkiye, Alex Mousa from Burkina Faso, Malak Dahmani from Morocco, and Mohamed Al Thabet from Tunisia.

Omani Short Documentaries

‘Sahar Al Rimal’ by Walid al Kharousi won the Dagger Award for Best Short Documentary. The jury award went to ‘Bint Al Raml’ directed by Salah al Hadrami and ‘Lonely Diver’ by Fahd al Maamari. The jury consisted of Mahboub Issa from Oman, Saeed al Nazam from Morocco, Sameh Sameer from Egypt, Rima al Majid from Saudi Arabia, and Mohammed al Ajmi from Oman.

International and Omani Animation Films

‘The Sea’ by Bilal Abu Samra from Egypt won the Dagger Award for Best International Animated Film. The Best Visual Design Award went to ‘Dream on the Wall’ by Iyad Abdul Hussein from Iraq. The jury award went to ‘Without Words’ by Nour Jamal from Egypt. Najlaa Mohammed from Egypt, Khaled Jallal from Syria, Abdullah Abari from Morocco, Hassanein al Hani from Iraq, and Munir al Sulaimi from Oman were in the jury. The festival also honoured several artists, including Bahrain’s Zainab al Askari and Omani artists Khalil al Sinani and Abdullah Habeib, as well as directors Khamees al Musafir and Hussain Amiri from the UAE.

On the sidelines of the festival’s closing ceremony, an agreement was signed between the artist and director Ahmed al Khadari from Kuwait and the ‘Aks for Short Films’ platform, represented by Fahd al Maamari. This collaboration will feature the screening of 10 short films on the platform to attract an international audience interested in Oman’s culture. The ‘Aks’ platform is considered one of the youth cultural initiatives aimed at promoting Oman.