The Arab Cinema Center announced the winners of the 3rd Annual Critics Awards on the sidelines of the 72nd Cannes Film Festival on Saturday night.
Best Film: ‘Yomeddine’
Directed by Abu Bakr Shawky, a Coptic leper and an orphaned boy leave their colony to embark on journey across Egypt in this film.
Best Director: Nadine Labaki
Nadine Labaki’s Oscar-nominated film, “Capernaum,” tells the story of an impoverished boy who files a lawsuit against his parents.
Best Documentary: ‘Of Fathers and Sons’
For more than two years, filmmaker Talal Derki lived with a family Syria, focusing his camera on the children to capture their gradual radicalization.
Best Screenplay: ‘Sofia’
Meryem Benm’Barek wrote the screenplay for this Moroccan film in which a woman who is about to give birth risks going to jail if she cannot provide the father’s identity papers.
Best Actress: Maha Alemi
Nominated for her titular role in “Sofia,” a drama feature set in Casablanca that is a commentary on the woes of women in Morocco.
Best Actor: Mohamed Dhrif
He plays a troubled father in “Dear Son,” which follows a story of a middle-class couple who struggle when their son leaves for Syria to join Daesh.
