The 26th edition of the Carthage Film Festival announced this year’s winners in a closing ceremony held yesterday at the Municipal Theatre of Tunis and hosted by Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef.

In the feature film competition, The Blinds Band (Mohamed Mouftakir, Morocco) won the golden tanit. The silver tanit went to The Endless River (Oliver Hermanus, South Africa) and the bronze tanit went to As I Open My Eyes (Leyla Bouzid, Tunisia/France/Belgium).

Much Loved (Nabil Ayouch, Morocco) received the Special Jury Prize. As for the Best Screenplay Award, it went to Letter to the King (Hisham Zaman, Iraq).

The Best Actor Award went to Adlane Djemi for his role in Madame Courage (Algeria). The Best Actress Award went to Maïmouna N'Diaye for her role in Eye of the Storm (Burkina Faso).

In the short film competition, Diaspora (Alaeddin Abou Taleb, Tunisia) won the golden tanit. The silver tanit went to Mother Earth (Aliou Sow, Senegal), while the bronze tanit went to The Wave (Omar Belkacemi, Algeria).

In the Debut Film competition, which comprises three awards, Fi Rassi Rond-Point (Hassen Ferhani, Algeria) received the Tahar Cheriaa Award, which recognises a director’s first work.

The TV5 Monde Jury Award went to As I Open My Eyes (Leyla Bouzid, Tunisia/France/Belgium) and Necktie Youth (Sibs Shongwe, South Africa).

The Jury’s Special Mention went to Le Puits (Lofti Bouchouchi, Algeria).

In the documentary film competition, Fi Rassio Rond-Point (Hassen Ferhani, Algeria) received the golden tanit. Homeland-Iraq Year Zero (Abbas Fahdel, Iraq) received the silver tanit. The bronze tanit went to Queens of Syria (Yasmin Fedda, Syria).

In the Carthage Ciné-Promesses competition, which recognises works by film school students, The Translator (Kayis Emre, Turkey) received the golden tanit. Discipline (Christophe Saber, Egypt) received the CNCI Jury Award and Awake (Medina del Valle Marta, Spain) received the Jury’s Special Mention.

Queens of Syria (Yasmin Fedda, Syria ) also received the CREDIF prize, awarded to the best female director of a feature film participating in the festival's official selection. 


As I Open My Eyes (Leyla Bouzid, Tunisia/France/Belgium) also won two more awards: the UGTT Prize which recognises the best technician of a feature film, and the FIPRESCI Award presented by the International Federation of Film Critics.

Moreover, two Egyptian films, On the Fence, and Egyptian Jeanne d’Arc received assistance grants from the Takmil Workshop, a parallel programme that awards seven grants to “enable African and Arab filmmakers to submit their films in post-production phase to the expertise of an international jury,” as mentioned on the festival's official website.  

On the Fence (Nesrine El-Zayat, Egypt) is a personal film about three young girls of different ages that narrates their sense of alienation and detachment from society and from the place they live in. 

Egyptian Jeanne d’Arc (Iman Kamel, Egypt) is a creative documentary that looks into the notion of female emancipation in post-25 January Egypt, by juxtaposing interviews, poetry voice-over and dance.

This year’s edition opened 21 November and was headed by Tunisian director and producer Ibrahim Letaief and aimed to “anchor the Carthage Film Festival in its Arab-African land while maintaining openness to world cinematography, those who share our concern for independence and cultural expression,” according to the festival's official website. 

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