KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – The First Kobani Short Film Festival finished receiving the films which will compete in the festival on Tuesday. They will select 15 films to compete for prizes and electronic certificates, which will be announced by a competent committee a week later.
The film screening committee member, Mauritanian director Mai Mustafa, said that the committee will choose 15 films, ten international and five Syrian films, to compete for the festival awards that include Best Film, Best Director, Best Scenario, and Arbitration Commission Award.
According to Mustafa, the committee will choose the films according to several standards such as quality of the film technically, scenario, directing, performing, and picture and sound quality.
The film screening committee finished its work today after listing the participating films and handling them to the management of the festival, in order to choose the winning films through another committee.
More than 85 films participated in the festival, which was announced by filmmakers and those interested in June. The festival was held online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mustafa Zidan, the Public Affairs Manager of the festival, told North Press that the festival included films from Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, France, and Britain.
The festival should have been held in Kobani city six months ago, but due to coronavirus and financial restrictions, it was postponed and made online. The festival management is still contacting cultural authorities in Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the North and East of Syria to secure a budget for the festival, according to Zaydan.
Festival management stipulated that films should in other languages should be translated into English, should be less than 25 minutes in duration and filmed between 2017 and 2020, according to the festival organizers.
Afrini writer and director Mahmud Chaqmaqi said that “the idea of online festival is a new…due to coronavirus. The coronavirus pandemic changed the cultural aspect in all its branches.”
The festival arbitration committee includes the head of the arbitration committee, director Sardar Zankana from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, committee supervisor Syrian Kurdish director Jenko Sharif, members of the arbitration committee scenarist Kamel Qader Hamid from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Syrian director and scenarist Issa Omran, and Danish actor of Kurdish origin Nozad Alani, in addition to the festival head Syrian Kurdish director and writer Jan Bapir.
The head of the arbitration committee Sardar Zankana said that the committee members would participate from their country by making decisions and through a special page of the festival site especially for the committee members.
Zankana added that after the sorting committee selects the films, the arbitration committee will evaluate them, according to standards of the festival.
(Reported by Fatah Issa, editing by Lucas Chapman)