09|05|2022 - by MIME The 12th edition of the Malmö Arab Film Festival has come to a close and after all was said and done, great films participated, while others in development were awarded money to continue on. It was a success story all around. When all was said and done, the film Soula by Algerian director Salah Issaad won the best feature film award, and Were it not for Metro by Lebanese director Georges Hachem won the best documentary award. The best short film award went to the Lebanes Then Came Dark directed by Marie-Rose Osta and The Alleys by Jordanian director Bassel Ghandour won the People's Choice Award presented by the Culture Office of Malmö. There are rumours that Ghandour, who co-wrote the Oscar nominated Theeb, will be developing his film into a series, which suits the narrative and setting very well, so needless to say, we can't wait for that. On the fifth day of the festival (Sunday, May 8th) a workshop with the children of Malmö took place, followed by the screening of the film Bara El Manhag by Egyptian director Amr Salama for school students in the city. The fifth programme of the short film competition was also screened. The awards ceremony were hosted inside Cinema Royal, the largest cinema hall in Sweden, followed by the screening of the closing film Hamel El Lakab by Egyptian director Hisham Fathy, in the presence of the film's director and stars Hisham Maged, Mohamed Sallam and Ahmed Fathy. The founder and head of MAFF Mouhamad Keblawi, expressed his happiness for the end of another successful edition, by saying: "This is undoubtedly the largest edition in the festival’s history, an edition in which MAFF took a great step forward in terms of quantity and quality, and it became imperative for us to immediately start preparing for the next edition in order to ensure it happens at the same level."
