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Mohamed Kordofani’s Goodbye Julia and Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters lead the nominations for the 8th Critics Awards for Arab Films, which will be held during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

Both features picked up seven nominations apiece for the awards, focused on Arab films that were produced and premiered outside of the Arab world in 2023. Overseen and run by the Cairo-based Arab Cinema Centre (Acc), it was voted on by 209 critics from 72 countries and the winners will be announced during Cannes on May 18.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

This year’s nominees range from Sudan,...

Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters and Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s Lupita Nyong’o-EPed drama Goodbye Julia lead the nominations in the eighth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films.

Hybrid work Four Daughters, exploring the story of a real-life Tunisian mother who lost two of her daughters to Isis after they were radicalized by a local preacher, world premiered in Competition in Cannes last year.

The film won Cannes’ Golden Eye for Best Documentary and also went on to be nominated for Best Documentary at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Kordofani’s Khartoum-set drama Goodbye Julia was also at Cannes in 2023, making history as the first Sudanese film to play in the festival across its 76 editions, with a debut in Un Certain Regard. It represented Sudan at in the 2023-24 Oscar race but was not nominated.

Set against the backdrop of the 2011 South Sudan Independence referendum,...

Film Clinic is set to dominate the lineup of the highly anticipated third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival — which is scheduled to run from Nov 30, 2023 – Sat, Dec 9, 2023 — with the prolific production and distribution shingle boasting four of its titles in the festival. Coming in first in Arab Spectacular section titles Hajjan and Four Daughters. In Competition — Backstage and showcasing in the Festival Favourites section — Animalia.

Hajjan

Abu Bakr Shawky's latest Hajjan, produced by the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) & Film Clinic. It had its World Premiere in the Toronto International Film Festival.– It is also produced by Mohamed Hefzy and Majed Zuhair Samman, co-produced by The

Imaginarium Films' Rula Nasser, and distributed by Film Clinic Indie Distribution in the Arab world while Film Constellation has the

worldwide rights. It revolves around brothers Matar and Ghanim, who live in the endless desert of Saudi Arabia.

London and Paris-based Film Constellation has taken international sales on Egyptian director Abu Bakr Shawky’s hotly anticipated Saudi-set adventure movie “Hajjan,” ahead of its Toronto Film Festival world premiere.

“Hajjan,” which will launch from Toronto’s Discovery section, is a followup to Shawky’s first feature “Yomeddine,” which had the rare distinction of making the competition cut for Cannes.

Somewhat similarly to “Yomeddine” – which involved the desert voyage of a leper, a donkey, and a child – “Hajjan” also involves a journey across the desert, this time embarked upon by a young orphan boy and his beloved camel. The big-budget film, which was shot mostly in the sprawling area situated along Saudi’s Red Sea coast in Tabuk, in the northwest of the kingdom, is about a young boy named Matar who, after the death of his brother on the camel race track, tries to avenge his death. To do...

Egyptian director Abu Bakr Shawky, whose first feature “Yomeddine” had the rare distinction of making the competition cut for Cannes, has completed his followup, the Saudi-set travel movie “Hajjan” which is expected to soon surface on the festival circuit.

Somewhat similarly to “Yomeddine,” which made a splash in 2018, the hotly anticipated “Hajjan” involves a journey across the desert, this time embarked upon by a boy and his camel. The big-budget film, which was shot mostly in the sprawling area situated along Saudi’s Red Sea coast in Tabuk – in the northwest of the kingdom – is about a young boy named Matar who, after the death of his brother on the camel race track, tries to avenge his death. To do so he becomes a camel jockey, only to find himself entangled in a battle for his own freedom.

“At its heart, ‘Hajjan” is an adventure [film] that captures the deep connection...

Egyptian director Abu Bakr Shawky, whose first film “Yomeddine” – about a man raised in a leper colony, who embarks with a young sidekick and a donkey on a journey across Egypt – had the rare distinction of making the competition cut for Cannes, is back behind the camera on the ambitious Saudi-set travel movie “Sea of Sands.”

Somewhat similarly to “Yomeddine,” which made a splash on the fest circuit in 2018, “Sea of Sands” involves a journey across the desert, this time embarked upon by a boy and his camel.

“Camels are very much part of the heritage of Saudi culture,” said Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy, who noted that in the “Sea of Sands” storyline the boy in question “is kind of inadvertently thrown into the world of camel racing. “It was never really his intention to become a championship jockey,” Hefzy went on to note. “But somehow, he has to do that to survive.

Saudi-Egyptian co-production revolves around the special bond between a young Bedouin orphan and a camel.

Egyptian director A.B. Shawky, whose first feature Yomeddine enjoyed a buzzy Cannes launch in Competition in 2018, has signed to direct Saudi-set coming-of-age tale Sea Of Sands.

The feature is a joint production between Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture, known as Ithra, and Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy, whose recent credits include Feathers, Amira and Souad. Ithra’s head of performing arts and cinema Majed Z. Samman also takes a producer credit.

The film revolves around the relationship between a young Bedouin orphan...

Saudi-Egyptian co-production revolves around the special bond between a young Bedouin orphan and a camel.

Egyptian director A.B. Shawky, whose first feature Yomeddine enjoyed a buzzy Cannes launch in Competition in 2018, has signed to direct Saudi-set coming-of-age tale Hajjan (previously titled Sea Of Sands).

The feature is a joint production between Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture, known as Ithra, and Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy, whose recent credits include Feathers, Amira and Souad. Ithra’s head of performing arts and cinema Majed Z. Samman also takes a producer credit.

The film revolves around the relationship between a...

With the success of Netflix’s Egyptian horror series “Paranormal” and a slew of streamers such as Viu and Osn seeking locally produced originals, the TV market in Egypt is set to undergo rapid change.

In response, Cairo International Film Festival’s TV Pitch Market, part of the festival’s Industry Days program and now in its second year, joined forces with Middle East Media Initiative (Memi) to shape 11 TV projects into a “pitchable” form this week.

Memi, a University of Southern California-based exchange program backed by the U.S. State Department and Middle East TV industry partners, is dedicated to training and supporting a new generation of Arab TV screenwriters and content creators to tell local stories for a universal market.

Following four intense days of workshops and sessions during Ciff’s Industry Days program, projects were given the opportunity to pitch – via Zoom – to a room full...