After announcing the cancellation of its 6th edition because of the war between Hamas and Israel, the El Gouna Film Festival was finally held from December 14th to 22nd. During the event the professional section, CineGouna, announced the winners of this year’s SpringBoard.
CineGouna SpringBoard is a project development and co-production lab. providing creative and financial support opportunities for Arab directors and producers with films either in development or in post-production.
This year the organisers received 160 films – drama and documentaries. A jury composed of Hala Khalil (Egypt), Guillaume de Seille (France) and George David (Jordan) gave awards to the best projects among the 19 titles short-listed (12 in development and 7 in post-production).
The CineGouna Platform Awards went to two directors: Amer Shomali for his mokumentary Theft of Fire, a true story about a Palestinian artist trying to recover Palestinian archaeological artefacts stolen by an Israeli soldier, and Hussein Al-Asadi for his documentary She Was Not Alone which shows the daily life of an elderly woman living in a cabin in the middle of the marshes of southern Iraq.
The list of CineGouna SpringBoard winners is available on the festival web-site.
Sources: El Gouna Film Festival, Cineuropa
