With the closing of the 2019 International Venice Film Festival, Venice Final Cut and Venice International Film Critics’ Week, AFAC-supported films stood in the limelight with seven awards scooped in various categories.

The 76th International Venice Film Festival’s Lion of the Future - Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Feature was picked up by Sudanese director Amjad Abu Alala for his film You Will Die at Twenty, receiving a prize of USD 100,000. “I was very much affected by the revolution while writing the scenario of the film, and very keen on exiting or rebelling from the reality”, declared Abu Alala in a BBC interview. “You Will Die at Twenty” joins two other AFAC-supported films which received the Lion of the Future in Venice in recent years, namely Tunisian director Ala Eddine Slim’s The Last of Us in 2016 and Syrian director Soudade Kaadan’s The Day I Lost My Shadow in 2018.

Furthermore, A Son by Tunisian director Mehdi Barsaoui received the Orizzonti Best Actor Award for Sami Bouajila’s role, as well as the Interfilm prize for best film. “Presenting our film at the Mostra in Venice, one of the most prestigious cinema festivals in the world, is a consecration by itself. It has been an exceptional week, from the presentation of the film in world premiere, to the ensuing standing ovation; it was a dream that was becoming reality. And then the cherry on top: the film was doubly awarded. We are dancing on a small cloud”, commented Barsaoui. (To watch the film trailer, click here.)

Concurrently, the Lebanese film All This Victory by Ahmad Ghossein was the grand winner at the 34th Venice International Film Critics Week, bringing home the Grand Prize, the Audience Award – Comune di Taranto, and the Mario Serandrei – Hotel Saturnia International Award for Best Technical Contribution.

On the sidelines of the festival, Moroccan director Ismael Ferroukhi’s Mica was awarded the El Gouna Film Festival Award at the 7th Final Cut in Venice.