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FESTIVALS / AWARDS France

War on Screen crowns For Sama its winner

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- Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ documentary scoops both the Grand Prize and the Audience Award, while Papicha, Monos and Camille complete the list of victors

War on Screen crowns For Sama its winner
For Sama by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts

Confirming its deserved place within the tightly packed landscape of film events unspooling in France in the autumn months, and having paid tribute to Bertrand Tavernier and Mike Leigh in their presence during its 7th edition, which closed on 6 October in Châlons-en-Champagne to the tune of over 19,000 viewers, the War on Screen Festival has crowned the British documentary For Sama [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts
film profile
]
by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts its winner; a film which walked away brandishing both the Grand Jury Prize (whose judges were presided over by the photographer and director Seamus Murphy) and the Audience Award.

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Unveiled (and triumphant) in Austin’s SXSW before being shown in a Special Screening as part of Cannes’ official selection, battling it out for the Best Documentary Golden Eye Award as presented on the Croisette, For Sama, which plunges the viewer into the very heart of the Syrian conflict from a very personal perspective, is raking in the accolades (notably winning awards in Sheffield and at Toronto’s Hot Docs, as well as in Munich, Telluride, Galway, Odessa, Dinard, Leipzig, Bologne, Durban, Guanajuato, Minneapolis, Newport and Nantucket). The film will be released in French cinemas on 9 October courtesy of KMBO.

This year’s War on Screen Festival has likewise paid tribute to three fiction films discovered in Cannes, at the Sundance Festival and in Locarno, respectively: Papicha [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mounia Meddour
film profile
]
by Mounia Meddour (bagging the Best Direction award and the Student Jury Prize – due to be released in France on 9 October via Jour2Fête), Monos [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Alejandro Landes (which received a Special Mention – to be distributed in France by Le Pacte as of 4 March 2020) and Camille [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Boris Lojkine
film profile
]
by Boris Lojkine (the winner of the Press Jury Prize – to be released on 16 October via Pyramide).

The full list of awardees is as follows:

International Feature Film Competition

Grand International Jury Prize
For Sama [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts
film profile
]
- Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts (UK/US)

International Jury Award for Best Direction
Papicha [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mounia Meddour
film profile
]
- Mounia Meddour (France/Algeria/Belgium)

International Jury Special Mention
Monos [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Alejandro Landes (Colombia/Netherlands/Argentina/Germany/Denmark/Sweden/Uruguay/Switzerland)

Audience Award
For Sama - Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts

Press Jury Prize
Camille [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Boris Lojkine
film profile
]
- Boris Lojkine (France/Central African Republic)

Student Jury Prize
Papicha - Mounia Meddour

International Short Films Competition

Lycée Jury’s Best Short Film Award
Silence - Mahdi Borjian (Iran)

Audience Award
Excess Will Save Us - Morgane Dziurla-Petit (Sweden)

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(Translated from French)

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