CineMobile festival winners announced

The second edition of CineMobile, a film festival organised by Al Arabia Cinema and Qualcomm featuring films shot using smartphones or tablets, concluded on Tuesday night at an event held in Cairo. The festival, which seeks to develop the skills of a new generation of filmmakers in Egypt, as well as offer financial and technical support to promising directors, hosts fiction and documentary entries not exceeding 10 minutes. Feature entry Ensan (Human) — which focuses on feelings of desperation and frustration experienced by human beings — was awarded first prize, and LE 30,000 as a production fund. Directed by Islam Belal and starring Aya Mohamed and Mohamed El-Atafy, the film was one of 22 entries in the festival’s official competition, selected out of a staggering 300 films submitted during the CineMobile open call, which ran from 27 July to 28 September. The Special Jury Award, a production fund of LE 20,000 was collected by director Mohamed El-Dabah for his film Mogarrad (Stripped-down). Mohamed Karara's documentary film Qefl wa Ganzeer (Lock and Chain) took home the award for best documentary, with a grant of LE 15,000. The Public Voting Award was granted to Portrait, a film by director Amr Mousa. CineMobile artistic director Amir Ramses said the festival’s second edition witnessed an unexpectedly large number of submissions from across the country – which required meticulous screening for the competition – and that Arab filmmakers also showed eagerness to participate. The organisers found that hosting the festival this year was crucial, despite the country’s political instability. Festival director Hussein El-Kolla commented that "Mobile cinema is the future. The world has started to work with the medium and we don't want to lag behind, which prompted us to hold this second edition of the festival." Source: Ahram online