Saudi's Film Festivals curtains with distribution of 'Golden Palms'

Riyadh: The 8th annual Saudi Film Festival, the eight-day event started on June 2' and ended on Friday. Much of the event was broadcast on YouTube and was widely shared on social media, Arab News reported.

The Saudi Film Festival director Ahmed Al-Mulla officially concluded the event with his closing statement to an applauding audience. Along with prominent people's speeches, actors Ibrahem Al-Hajjaj and Sarah Taibah anchored the closing night.

The Saudi-based "Quareer" won big in the event. The movie had featured an anthology of five vignettes, each directed by women as their graduation project.

The movie showed Saudi women or girls before the recent changes the Saudi administration implemented to empower women in Kingdon. Makers of the movie- five women: Ragheed Al-Nahdi, Norah Almowald, Ruba Khafagy, Fatma Alhazmi and Noor Alameer- broke the previous record and won four awards for their film. The awards were Best Feature Film, Best Acting, Best Cinematography and the Jury Prize. The award included golden palms and a cash prize.

There were other awards, including Best Short Documentary, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Produced Script etc., and a full list of awards and winners is listed on the SaudiFilmFestival website.

Speakers in the event, including actor Al-Hajjaj, opined that the real winners were those who dared to dream about filmmaking inside the Kingdom. Simply attending the festival, those who were there showed a willingness to go beyond being passive viewers and added that everyone won just by taking part in the event.

There was a filmmaker Ismail Al-Bukhari, who shot his movie in New York City during the pandemic. He did all the works of his film, including shooting, directing and editing, and he stated that the experience was "surreal". He had taken two solid years to complete the English language thriller. He told Arab News that the event was the world premiere of his move, 'Resurrected'.