Russian filmmaker Anna Budanova won the Black Pearl Award for best narrative for her film "Obida" in the Short Film Competition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF), it was announced here Wednesday night.
The Black Pearl Awards for SFC and for the Emirates Film Competition (EFC) were announced at a glittering ceremony held at the Emirates Palace here.
The festival's SFC is made up of short narratives, documentaries and animated works selected from all over the world. Twenty titles were selected for this year's competition.
Of that, "Though I Know The River Is Dry", directed by Omar Robert Hamilton, won the best film from the Arab world, while the best documentary award was clinched by French director Jean-Gabriel Periot's "Le Jour A Vaincu La Nuit". The best animated short film was given away to "Reality 2.0", helmed by Victor Orozco Ramirez.
Said Hamish won the best producer award for "Zakaria", directed by Leyla Bouzid, while from the Arab world in specific, Djaber Debzi was honoured for the movie "The Days Before". It is directed by Karim Moussaoui.
The awards were presented in a ceremony at the Emirates Palace.
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EFC, which comprised over forty short films from the region, was open to filmmakers from all GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) nations.
In the short narrative competition under EFC, Mohammed Al Ibrahim's "Bidoon" took the lead, followed by Malak Quota's "With Time". A special jury award was bestowed on the movie "Daddy ABC", directed by Hamad Al Awar.
EFC's short documentary category saw Rafed Al Harthi and Ray Haddad's "Feeding Five-Hundred" emerge as the winner, while the second prize was won by Latifa Al Darwish and Rouda Al Meghaiseebfor "Temsa7". In this category, the special jury award was given to Latifa Al Darwish, Sara Al Saadi and Maaria Assami for "Bader".
Awards were also given away for the student short narrative competition and for the student short documentary competition.
Two separate juries for each competition, made up of established filmmakers and industry professionals, decided on the awards. The ceremony was attended by actors and filmmakers from the films in competition as well as other festival guests, critics and jurors.
The main awards for the seventh edition of ADFF, which began Oct 24, will be announced Thursday night.