The jury of the twelfth edition of the International Maghreb Film Festival in Oujda, in eastern Morocco, withheld the "Grand Prize" awarded for the best feature film. The committee, led by Moroccan director Mohamed Abderrahmane Tazi, did not reveal the reasons for withholding the award, which competed between two films from Tunisia, two films from Algeria, and one film from Morocco.
The jury awarded the Best Direction and Best Screenplay prizes to the Moroccan film "Al-Abd," directed by Abdelilah Jouhari. The Best Actor award went to Tunisian Mohamed Murad for his role in the film "Wahla." Algerian Soula Bahri received the Best Actress award for her performance in the film "Soula," directed by Salah Essaadi. The jury praised the Tunisian film "Spy List" by director Faraj Al-Traboulsi and awarded a special distinction certificate to the Algerian film "Kyoku - Harvest Season of Dreams" by director Hamid Ben Amara.
The festival honored Tunisian actress Wahida D Riyadi, Moroccan screenwriter Mohamed Bouzakkar, and Senegalese actress Rokhia Niane at the closing ceremony held on Wednesday evening at the Mohamed VI Theater in Oujda. The twelfth edition of the festival, organized by the Cine Maghreb Association, began five days ago under the slogan "Cinema for Living Together among Peoples," with Spain chosen as the guest of honor.
In the short film competition, which included 12 films, the Grand Prize was awarded to the Moroccan film "Memory of Forgetting" by director Al-Houari Ghabari, while Tunisian Ali Marwan Al-Shaki received the Best Direction award for the film "Once a Year."
