Markus Schleinzer’s acclaimed movie can add another award to its success story: The Austrian-German coproduction starring Sandra Hüller has won this year’s Arab Critics' Award for European Films on 17 October. The Award, in its eighth edition, is presented by European Film Promotion (EFP) in collaboration with the Arab CinemaCenter (ACC).
More than 100 critics from various Arab countries voted for the winner out of 25 European movies they were screening over the time of 2 months. The award ceremony at the El Gouna Film Festival took place in attendance of the film’s producer Johannes Schubert.
Director Markus Schleinzer on his award: A prize from critics is something very special. It means that people who spend their professional live watching closely – who notice the seams, the choices, the things that work and the things that almost worked – have decided that we made was worth their attention. That is a harder verdict to earn. And I don’t take that lightly. Because criticism at its best isn’t a verdict handed from above – it’s a conversation. It helps keeping the work alive long after the first audience has gone home. It helps getting even more people into the conversation.You can think a lot. You can do a lot. But if people are not coming to see, it is all meaningless. Therefore I cannot thank you enough to always help the conversation ongoing, with the work you do.
Rose, set in the aftermath of the Thirty Year’s War in 17th century Germany, follows the protagonist Rose (Sandra Hüller) as she arrives at a small village disguised as a man to claim „his“ heir. Nobody knows about her stolen identity, not even Suzanna (Caro Braun), a farmer’s daughter, to whom Rose grows closer and closer by the time. Entirely shot in black and white, the film sheds an uncoventional light on war induced trauma and conventional gender roles. Sandra Hüller’s layered play as well as Schleinzer’s intense directing enthralled critics and movie goers all around the world, gaining renowned awards such as the Silver Bear at the 76th Berlin Festival for Sandra Hüller as Best Actress, and was picked as Austia’s entry to the upcoming Academy Awards as Best Foreign Feature.
The Arab Critics’ Award for European Films was launched in 2019 by EFP and the ACC. It is a spin-off from the ACC’s well-established Critics' Awards to boost the diversity of films in the region and raise the interest of distribution companies and the industry for outstanding European films. The initiative also casts a spotlight onto distinguished film critics from Arab speaking countries and their important role of introducing new perspectives and bridging cultural differences and characteristics.
Previous winners included God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya by Teona Strugar Mitevska (2019), Undine by Christian Petzold (2020), 107 Mothers by Peter Kerekes (2021), EO by Jerzy Skolimowski (2022), Fallen Leaves by Aki Kaurismäki (2023), The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof (2024) and Yunan by Ameer Fakher Eldin (2025).
The Arab Critics’ Award for European Films is made possible thanks to the support of Creative Europe – the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.
