Abu Dhabi, October 18: Presented by international stars Orlando Bloom and Naomi Watts, the Black Pearl awards for Best Narrative Film and Best Middle Eastern Narrative Film ($100,000 each) went to “Hipsters” (Russia) by Valery Todorovsky and “The Time that Remains” by Palestinian director Elia Suleiman.
The Best New Director for a narrative feature ($50,000) is Glendyn Ivin (Australia) for “Last Ride”, while the Best Middle Eastern Director award ($50,000) went to Pelin Esmer (Turkey) for “10 to 11”.
Black Pearl Award for Best Actor and Best Actress ($25,000 each) went to Iranian Hamed Behdad (“No One Knows About Persian Cats”) and Mexican Alicia Laguna and Sonia Couoh (“Northless” – a movie by Rigoberto Perezcano which also received the Jury Special Mention Award).
The Black Pearl awards in the Documentary Feature Competition went to: best documentary film ($100,000) – “The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, a Torch for Peace”; best new documentary director $50,000) – Johan Grimonprez, Netherlands for “Double Take”; best Middle Eastern documentary ($100,000) – “On the Way to School” by Turkish directors Orhan Eskikoy and Ozgur Dogan; best Middle Eastern documentary director ($50,000) – Tunisian Mohamed Zran for “Being Here”.
In the Short Film Competition category, the Black Pearls went to: “Six Dollar Fifty Man” by Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland (New Zeeland) for Best Narrative Short; “Wagah” by Supriyo Sen and Najaf Bilgrami (Pakistan, India, Germany) for Best Documentary Short, each with a $25,000 prize.
The Audience Choice Award this year went to “No One Knows About Persian Cats”.
–Agencies