Egyptian short 'This Is My Night' wins gold at Geneva film fest
Eslam Omar, , Wednesday 17 Jun 2020
The FIFOG jury saluted the musical choices and dream-like force of the film, praising its efficiency and narrative audacity


The Egyptian short film 'Hazehy Laylaty' ("This Is My Night"), starring actress Nahed Elsebaeiy, has won the gold award at the 15th edition of the Geneva International Oriental Film Festival (FIFOG), wrapped up in Geneva on Monday.

The 15-minute 2019 production, directed by Yusuf Noaman, who wrote the screenplay with Ahmed Ehab Abdel-Wareth, is about a poor lady who decides to enjoy a day out in classy Cairo and have some ice-cream with her son, who suffers from Down syndrome. Instead, she faces a big struggle, although she insists on holding onto happy moments.

“Through this award, we wanted to recompense the film efficiency and narrative audacity, in particular the exploration of the urban landscape of a large city in Egypt and its contrasts," stated the FIFOG jury, headed by Swiss journalist Kammermann Catherine.

"Finally, we salute the quality of the musical choice and the dream-like force of the film,” the jury added.

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Sixty films from different genres were shown at the oriental festival that took place in Geneva and its municipalities between 8 and 14 June under the theme 'Resistance… feminine.’ The 2020 edition is celebrating "the images of women" among other things.

The silver FIFOG award went to Moroccan director Abdellatif Fdil's fiction 'A Philosopher' and Lebanese Maria Abdel Karim's 'Two Women Can Tango'.

Special mentions were awarded to 'Touiza' of French-Algerian Karim Bengana and 'She Runs', directed by Chinese Qiu Yang.

In the public prize category, Iraqi Mustaf Alsumaidaie won gold in documentary competition for 'Smile In One Minute', with 1,370 interactions, while 'Toprak' of Turkish Onur Yagiz won gold in fiction category.

The jury includes Algerian journalist Hana Menasria, Moroccan author Malak Dahmouni, Belgian-Rwandan actress Aurora Marion, Tunisian-French author Lilia El Golli and Swiss journalist Emmanuel Donna.

With over 200 institutional partners, the 15th FIFOG held tens of discussions with directors and actors at the festival's 25 venues in Geneva and its neighbouring areas Versoix, Vernier, Presinge, and Carouge.

After premiering at El Gouna Film Festival in 2019, Egyptian film 'This Is My Night' was screened at many festivals worldwide, including Festival du Court Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand, gaining the interest of many critics and fans in addition to entities, such as the European Union.

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