Red Sea International Film Festival announces Yusr Awards winners


Razmig Bedirian
  • English
  • Arabic

Harka and Hanging Gardens were the big winners of the Yusr Awards at the second Red Sea International Film Festival, with both films taking two accolades each.

The event was held at the garden area of the Jeddah’s Ritz Carlton on Thursday.

While there are still two more days before the festival is officially over, the award ceremony seals the second year of the event, which screened 131 films and shorts from 61 countries.

Several Arab and international stars attended the ceremony including Naomi Campbell, Antonio Banderas, Yousra, Mike Tyson, DJ Khaled and Nancy Ajram.

Jackie Chan, meanwhile, was given the Yusr Honorary Award.

The actor, who is celebrating his 60th year in the cinema business, took to the stage and, after thanking organisers, announced that he is going to make more love stories instead of action films.

“Except for Rush Hour 4,” he said.

Hanging Gardens won the Golden Yusr for Best Feature. The film, directed by Ahmed Al Daradji, tells the story of a young rubbish picker in Baghdad who comes across a sex doll, igniting a series of perilous events and encounters.

The film’s cinematographer, Duraid Munajim, won the Silver Yusr for Best Cinematic Achievement.

Lotfy Nathan won the Silver Yusr for Best Director for the Tunisian film Harka, the star of which, Adam Bessa, won the award for Best Actor.

The film tells the story of Ali, a young Tunisian man who barely makes a living selling contraband gas and suddenly finds himself in charge of his two younger sisters after his father’s death.

Adila Bendimerad won the Silver Yusr for Best Actress for her role in The Last Queen. The Algerian period epic tells the story of the legendary Queen Zaphira.

Saudi actress and filmmaker Sarah Taibah won the Chopard Young Rising Star Award.

The Film AlUla Best Saudi Film Award went to How I Got There, by Zeyad Al Husaini. The film follows two friends who come across a shipment of guns and see it as an opportunity to make a fortune.

The Film AlUla Audience Award, meanwhile, was given to Ajoomma by He Shuming. The film centres on a widow obsessed with Korean soap operas who travels to Seoul.

The Jury Prize was given to the Saudi film Within Sand by Mohammed Alatawi. Reza Jamali’s Childless Village won the best screenplay award.

The Golden Yusr for short film went to On my Father’s Grave by Jawahine Zentar. The silver award was given to Will my Parents Come to See me, by Muhamed Bashiir Harawe.

The Virtual Reality Golden Yusr was given to From the Main Square by Pedro Harres. The Virtual Reality Silver Yusr was awarded to to Eurydice by Celine Daemen.

“These past eight days have proven that this moment is more than just a festival. It's a foundation with a mission to create a global creative community,” Jomana Al Rashed, the festival’s chairwoman, said during the ceremony.

“We explored the world of film in all its angles, its impact on influence, its power, and its ability to shape opinion, to educate and to inspire," Al Rashed said.

"Our work continues. Our support continues our effort to provide opportunities for new filmmakers for women and young people.

"That, too, will continue.”

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday) 

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
RESULTS
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ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Dubai Bling season three

Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed 

Rating: 1/5

CREW
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From Conquest to Deportation

Jeronim Perovic, Hurst

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg result:

Ajax 2-3 Tottenham

Tottenham advance on away goals rule after tie ends 3-3 on aggregate

Final: June 1, Madrid

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Updated: December 09, 2022, 9:49 AM`