three films shortlisted for arab critics’ awards for european films

A jury of 100 film critics from 16 Arab speaking countries selected three finalists from 20 entries for this year‘s Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films, Deaf by Eva Libertad (Spain), DJ Ahmet by Georgi M. Unkovski (North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia) and Yunan by Ameer Fakher Eldin (Germany, Canada, Italy, Palestine, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia). The award is jointly presented by European Film Promotion (EFP) and the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) and hosted by El Gouna Film Festival.

Eva Libertad’s debut feature Deaf is a deeply personal adaptation of her short film by the same name, starring her real-life sister, Miriam Garlo, who is deaf. The film explores the intimate and complex relationship between a deaf woman and her hearing partner as they prepare to have a child. Communication barriers, emotional tension, and quiet tenderness are portrayed with great sensitivity, especially in the film’s most silent moments. According to Libertad, the film is “a deeper dive into the complexity of the relationship between the deaf and hearing worlds,” reflecting experiences from her own life as the sister of a deaf woman. Deaf premiered in the Panorama section at this year’s Berlinale, where it won both the Audience Award and the Arthouse Cinema Award. At the 28th Festival de Málaga, it received six awards, including Best Film, Best Actress, and Best Actor. The film won also the Latin American Critics Award for European Films at FICG Guadalajara. Deaf is a production by Distinto Films, Nexus CreaFilms and A Contracorriente Films, with its world sales helmed by Madrid-based outfit Latido Films.

Georgi M. Unkovski’s debut feature DJ Ahmet celebrated its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award and received a Special Jury Award for Creative Vision. Set in a remote village in North Macedonia, the film tells the story of 15-year-old Ahmet, a quiet shepherd boy whose discovery of electronic music awakens a desire for freedom and self-expression. As Ahmet begins to dream of becoming a DJ, he faces the weight of family tradition, conservative expectations, and a love story that defies local norms. According to Unkovski, “DJ Ahmet is about the kind of silent resistance that begins in the smallest corners of the world, where dreams often clash with inherited silence.” Shot with both lyrical intimacy and bursts of vibrant energy, the film portrays the quiet revolution of a boy refusing to surrender his identity. A co-production between North Macedonia's Cinema Futura and Sektor Film, the Czech Republic's Alter Vision and Analog Vision, Serbia's Backroom Production and Baš Čelik and Croatia's 365 Films, DJ Ahmet is handled internationally by Films Boutique.

Ameer Fakher Eldin’s second feature Yunan is a contemplative and poetic exploration on identity, exile, and the search for meaning in unfamiliar landscapes. The film follows an Arab man who arrives on a remote island in the North Sea intending to end his life. Instead, he is confronted by its conservative, marginalized German community and the overwhelming force of nature, encounters that unsettle his resolve and gradually reshape his perspective. What begins as an act of solitude unfolds into an unexpected encounter with both people and place, gradually evolving into a quiet yet intense philosophical exchange that unearths themes of displacement, trauma, and renewal. Shot against the stark beauty of windswept Nordic landscapes, Yunan conjures a haunting sense of emotional exile that mirrors the protagonist’s inner journey. Fakher Eldin explains that he sought to explore the void left when familiarity dissolves, when the sense of home and belonging shatters and only silence remains. The film was part of this year’s Berlinale Competition and was awarded the Golden Firebird Award Best Actor (Georges Khabbaz) and Best Actress (Hanna Schygulla) at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Yunan was produced by delegate producer Dorothe Beinemeier from Red Balloon Film / Hamburg,Germany together with Microclimat Film (CA) and Intramovies (IT). Co-producers are Fresco Films, Metafora Productions and Tabi360. Its world sales are handled by Intramovies and Mad Solutions is handling Mena sales .

The 100 most prominent and influential Arab film critics have shortlisted the three films and will announce the winner during the El Gouna Film Festival (16 – 24 October 2024).

The Arab Critics’ Awards 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) and The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof (2024).

The Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films is made possible thanks to the support of Creative Europe – the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.

about arab cinema center

Organised by MAD Solutions in 2015, the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is a non-profit organisation registered in Berlin. The ACC is an international promotional platform for Arab cinema as it provides the filmmaking industry with a professional window to connect with their counterparts from all over the world through a number of events that it organises. The ACC also provides networking opportunities with representatives of companies and institutions specialised in co-production and international distribution, among others. The ACC’s activities vary between film markets, stands, and pavilions, networking sessions, and one-to-one meetings bringing together Arab and foreign filmmakers, welcome parties, as well as meetings with international organisations and festivals, and the publication of the Arab Cinema Magazine to be distributed at the leading international film festivals and markets. Furthermore, newsletter subscription is now available on the ACC’s website, allowing users to obtain digital copies of the Arab Cinema Magazine as well as news on the ACC’s activities, notification of application dates for grants, festivals and offers from educational and training institutions, updates on Arab films participating at festivals, exclusive news on the Arab Cinema LAB, and highlights from the ACC’s partners and their future projects.

about el gouna film festival

El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) was founded in 2017 with the mission to showcase a diverse range of films catering to a creative and well-versed audience. Designed for artists and filmmakers, GFF aspires to foster communication between cultures and filmmakers to benefit the industry and our region through the art of filmmaking by connecting filmmakers from the region with their international counterparts in the spirit of cooperation and cultural exchange. The festival is dedicated to the discovery of new voices and strives to be a catalyst for the development of cinema in the Arab world, particularly through its industry segment, CineGouna Platform.

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