MELBOURNE, THE BOY AND THE WORLD Win at Cairo 2014

The Iranian film Melbourne was awarded the Golden Pyramid for Best Picture at the Cairo International Film Festival this past Tuesday. I was lucky enough to attend the festival for this first time this year; besides having an excellent programming line-up, this year's event was its most successful ever. Most of the screenings I attended were packed, and audiences were enthusiastic and engaged (at least most of the time; if only Cairenes would turn off their mobiles during films).

For the first time, fiction films as well as animated features and documentaries were all considered under the same umbrella of the international competition. The Boy and the World, the wonderful animated film from Brazil (read my review), was awarded the Silver Pyramid for Best Screenplay, given to Ale Abreu (also the director). Egyptian actor Khaled Abol Naga won Best Actor for his understated yet powerful performance in Eyes of a Thief, Theeb (read my review) was awarded a special prize in the Prospects of Arab Cinema section, and Sand Dollars (read my review) won the Fipresci prize. This is probably the first festival I've been at where I've seen a lot of the award winners. Full list of winners below:

36th Cairo International Film Festival Awards

International Competition

Golden Pyramid: Melbourne, Nima Javidi, Iran
Silver Pyramid, Best Director: Margarita Manta, Forever, Greece
Silver Pyramid, Best Actor: Khaled Abol Naga, Eyes of a Thief, Palestine
Silver Pyramid, Best Actress: Adele Haenal, Love at First Fight, France
Silver Pyramid, Best Screenplay: Ale Abreu, The Boy and the World, Brazil
Silver Pyramid, Best Artistic Contribution: Zaki Aref, The Gate of Departure, Egypt
Fipresci Award: Sand Dollars, Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán, Dominican Republic

Prospects of Arab Cinema Prizes

Special Prize: Theeb, Najo Abou Nawar, Jordan
Saadeldin Wahba Prize: Kamal Kamal, Sotto Voce, Morocco
Salah Abou Seif Prize: Zeina Daccache, Shahrazad Diary, Lebanon

International Cinema of Tomorrow Prizes

Certificates of Appreciation: Statues, Roberto Fiesco Trejo, Mexico; That Music, Camilo Cabera, Colombia; Darling, Isabela Plucinska, Germany
Best Student Film: Sentra and the Talking Trees, Cilla Werning, Finland
Best Short Film: My Friend Nietzsche, Fauston da Silva, Brazil

International Critics' Week Awards

Shadi Abd El Salam Award: No One's Child, Vuk Rsumovic, Serbia, "for an astonishing portrayal of the decline of civilizations and the loss of human dignity"
Fathy Farag Award for Artistic Contribution: Brides, Tinatin Kajrishvili, Georgia, for "a profoundly artistic film which tackles hardships in life"

Nadine Shams Award for Young Scriptwriters

Best Script: Qanun al Tafo, Sherif El Zohairy, with recommendation to produce
Certificates of Appreciation: Al Tanyeen, Ezzat Amin; E'Teraf, Omar Khaled