Cannes 2018 Palm dÓr Nominee Films Yomeddine and Capernaum to Vie for Arab Critics Award

The Arab Cinema Centre has just announced its annual nominations and two films that contented at Cannes 2018 for the Palm dÓr—Nadine Labaki's Capernaum and AB Shawky's Yomeddine—have made the cut.

Capernaum is a Lebanese film about a little slum boy who sues his parents for neglecting him. Meanwhile, Yomeddine revolves around a leper, who after his wife's death, makes a donkey-cart trip across Egypt to meet his estranged family.

Notably, Capernaum was also one of the contenders for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards this year, but did not win.

The nominee films for the Arab Critics Award, which include both features and documentaries, are selected by a team of 75 movie critics from 34 countries, including India. The awards will be announced during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival between May 14 and 25. 

Interestingly, Labaki—who will head the ‘A Certain Regard’ jury at Cannes this May—will be the first Arab to enjoy the honour.

Apart from Capernaum and Yomeddine, Palestinian filmmaker Muayad Alayan's extra-marital affair drama, The Reports On Sarah And Saleem, involving a Palestinian man and an Israeli woman and Morocco's Sofia (about a young woman who illegally gives birth outside wedlock) by Maryem Benm Barek have got two nods each.

With Arab cinema getting increasingly focussed and engaging, it has begun to attract greater attention among movie festivals and critics. The Awards, now in their third year, also help promote Arab cinema.

Egyptian film critic Ahmed Shawky, who steers the Critics Awards, recently told the media that competition was fierce this year, indicating Arab cinema’s growing calibre and repute. “It was a hot year full of several Arab films that got selected, competed and won numerous international awards at many festivals in 2018,” he said.

Here’s the full list of nominees:

Best Documentary
Of Fathers and Sons, dir. Talal Derki (Syria)
Erased, ___ Ascent of the Invisible, dir. Ghassan Halwani (Lebanon)
Chaos, dir. Sara Fatahy (Lebanon, Syria)

Best Actress
Maha Alemi, Sofia (Morocco)
Maryhan Magdy, Poisonous Roses (Egypt)
Sarah Layssac, Divine Wind (Algeria)

Best Actor
Mohamed Dhrif, Weldi (Tunisia)
Ahmed Hafiane, Fatwa (Tunisia)
Zain Al Rafeea, Capernaum (Lebanon)

Best Screenplay
Meryem Benm’Barek, Sofia (Morocco)
Abu Bakr Shawky, Yomeddine (Egypt)
Rami Alayan, The Reports on Sarah and Saleem (Palestine)

Best Director
Abu Bakr Shawky, Yomeddine (Egypt)
Nadine Labaki, Capernaum (Lebanon)
Hicham Lasri, Jahilya (Morocco)

Best Film
Yomeddine, dir. A.B. Shawky (Egypt)
Capernaum, dir. Nadine Labaki (Lebanon)
The Reports on Sarah and Saleem, dir. Muayad Alayan (Palestine)

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