ACC reveals final list of nominations for 7th Critics Awards for Arab Films

The Arab Cinema Center (ACC) recently revealed the final nominees for the seventh edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films, which will be highlighting Arab films produced in 2022. 

The films are being assessed by a jury committee of 193 critics from 72 countries and the winners will be announced during a ceremony that will be held during the upcoming edition of the Cannes Film Festival. 

This year, the jury added three more categories — Best Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Music — in addition to its main categories, including Best Feature Film, Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Scriptwriter, Best Actor, and Best Actress. 

“The seventh Critics Awards for Arab Films celebrates a wide range of Arab film productions from Tunisia, Morocco, and Lebanon in 2022. These films earned a lot of positive feedback at various global film festivals and events over the past year. With more films and more categories for awards this year, I'd like to extend my gratitude to the jury members for all the hard work they put in,” said Deborah Young — Manager of the Critics Awards for Arab Films.

“We are overjoyed to celebrate the seventh annual Critics Awards for Arab films, which grows in prestige with each new edition and helps spread awareness of Arab cinema around the world. This year, we have expanded the jury and introduced three new award categories to recognize and shine a light on even more film industry professionals. Each year, we'd like to see the award grow bigger and bigger,” added Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab — Co-Founders of the ACC. 

The final list of nominees is:

Best Film

THE BLUE CAFTAN | Maryam Touzani | Morocco

HANGING GARDENS | Ahmed Yassin Aldaradji |Iraq 

ALAM | Firas Khoury| Palestine 

Best Actor

Adam Bessa |HARKA| Tunisia 

Saleh Bakri |THE BLUE CAFTAN| Palestine

Hussain Mohammad Jaleel |HANGING GARDENS| Iraq

Best Actress

Lubna Azabal |THE BLUE CAFTAN| Morocco

CLARA COUTURET |DIRTY, DIFFICULT, DANGEROUS| Ethiopia 

Fatma Oussaifi |ASHKAL| Tunisia 

Best Director

Youssef Chebbi |ASHKAL| Tunisia 

Maryam Touzani |THE BLUE CAFTAN| Morocco 

Erige Sehiri |UNDER THE FIG TREES| Tunisia 

Best Screenplay

Erige Sehiri |UNDER THE FIG TREES| Tunisia 

Maryam Touzani-Nabil Ayouch| THE BLUE CAFTAN| Morocco

Soudade Kaadan | NEZOUH| Syria  

Best Cinematography 

Frida Marzouk |UNDER THE FIG TREES| Tunisia 

Pierre Aïm |QUEENS | France 

Virginie Surdej| BLUE CAFTAN| Poland 

Best Editing

Julie Léna |QUEENS| France 

Valentin Féron |ASHKAL

Sophie Corra, Thomas Niles |HARKA

Best Music

Eli Keszler |HARKA| USA 

AMIN BOUHAFA |UNDER THE FIG TREES| Tunisia 

Kristian Eidnes Andersen| THE BLUE CAFTAN| Denmark 

Best Documentary

FORAGERS | Jumana Manna| Palestine 

SIRENS |Rita Baghdadi| Lebanon

MY LOST COUNTRY |Ishtar Yasin Gutierrez| Iraq

The first Critics Awards for Arab Films was held on the margins of the 70th Cannes Film Festival. The awards are given to the best Arab film productions every year in the following categories: Best Feature Film, Best Documentary Film, Best Director, Best Writer, Best Actress, and Best Actor. 

For the first time in the history of Arab cinema, the jury committee is bringing together 193 of the most prominent Arab and international film critics from 72 countries from all over the world this year.

The final list of the nominees for the Critics Awards for Arab Films was curated according to the following criteria: The films must have premiered at international film festivals outside of the Arab world during 2021, at least one of the production companies must be Arab (regardless of the size of its contribution to the production of the film), and the films must be feature-length (fiction or documentary).

Organized by MAD Solutions in 2015, the ACC is a nonprofit organization registered in Amsterdam and is an international promotional platform for Arab cinema, providing the Arab filmmaking industry with a professional window to connect with its counterparts from all over the world through a number of events that it organizes.