Clash Takes Home Three Awards at the Valladolid Film Festival

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Best New Director | Best DOP | The Sociograph

Clash Takes Home Three Awards at the Valladolid Film Festival


Director Mohamed Diab's feature, Clash, Egypt's official submission to the Best Foreign-language Category at the Academy Awards 2017, has won three awards at the 61st Valladolid Film Festival
(Seminci) which was held from October 22 to 29, including the Best New Director, Best Director of
Photography, and the Sociograph Award which is voted for by the audience.

This announcement comes just days after the film, which competed at the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard Section, won the Grand Prix at the Festival du Film Arabe de Fameck/Val de Fensch in France.

Tackling the political unrest that prevailed in Egypt in 2013, Clash's events take place in an 8-meter police truck, crammed with detainees representing different sects of society, their interaction with each other full of madness, violence, romance, and comedy.

Co-written by Khaled Diab and Mohamed Diab, who is also the director, Clash is a co-production between France, Egypt, Germany, and the UAE. The cast includes Nelly Karim, Tarek Abd El Aziz, Hany Adel, Ahmed Malek, Ashraf Hamdi, Mohamed Abdel Azim, Gamil Barsoum and others.

The film landed its world premiere last May at the Cannes Film Festival as it inaugurated the prestigious Un Certain Regard section. Clash marked Egypt's comeback as an official selection after years of absence to the most important festival in the film industry worldwide. The Hollywood Reporter also selected Clash as one of the 10 Best Films on the Critics' Faves list at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

Recently, Clash took part in the 60th BFI London Film Festival to compete within its official competition. The film is also set to screen in the 28th round of the Cairo International Film Festival (15 - 24 November) as part of a special section dedicated to showcasing the best Egyptian productions of 2015-2016, subtitled in English, to acquaint foreign guests with high quality Egyptian cinema.

Clash is a joint production effort between Arab and European companies: Film Clinic (Egypt), Sampek Productions (France), and Acamedia Global (UAE), in association with ARTE France Cinema (France), Niko Film (Germany), Fortress Film Clinic (UAE), and Pyramide International (France). Taking part in the project are producers Moez Masoud, Mohamed Hefzy, Eric Lagesse, and it is co-produced by Nicole Gerhards, alongside executive producers Jamal Al Dabbous and Daniel Ziskind. Mohamed Diab's wife, Sarah Goher, also acted as a creative collaborator on the film, earning the title "Creative Producer". The film is distributed in Egyptian theatres by MAD Solutions, while Pyramide International will distribute it in France and the rest of the world.