Director Mohamed Diab's Clash Wins the Main Award of the Cinepolitica International Film Festival

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Adds the Cinepolitica Trophy to Its Awards Collection

Director Mohamed Diab's Clash Wins the Main Award of the Cinepolitica International Film Festival


The film Clash by director Mohamed Diab won the main award (Cinepolitica Trophy) of the Cinepolitica International Film Festival in Romania. The festival is dedicated to films with predominantly political themes whether it is a feature, short, fiction or a documentary film.

During the awards ceremony, the festival's board has announced Clash as the winner of its greatest award, which also includes a monetary prize of EUR 1,500 granted to the film's director by the Romanian Cultural Institute.

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.

During its successful festival run around the world, Clash has won 19 awards, including the Best Film Poster Award, Best Music Award, Best Editing Award, Best Cinematography Award, and the Special Jury Prize for Direction at the 43rd Egyptian Film Association Festival. The film also won the Suwarna Chakoram Prize for Best Film and the Rajata Chakoram Audience Prize at the 21st International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in India, the Critics Prize at the 16th Mediterranean Film Festival of Brussels, the Golden Pram award for Best Film at the Zagreb International Film Festival, in addition to four awards at the 27th Carthage Film Festival, three awards at the 61st Valladolid Film Festival (Seminci) in Spain, and the Grand Prix at the Festival du Film Arabe de Fameck/Val de Fensch in France. Clash also took part in the 60th BFI London Film Festival to compete within its official competition and was screened at the 38th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) as part of a special section dedicated to showcasing the best Egyptian productions of 2015-2016.

The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) had chosen to present Mohamed Diab's Clash - Egypt's official submission to the Best Foreign-Language Film category at the Academy Awards 2017- to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HEPA) for Golden Globe Award consideration.

In May 2016, the film landed its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival as it opened the prestigious Un Certain Regard section. Clash marked Egypt's comeback as an official selection to the world's most prestigious film event after years of absence. The Hollywood Reporter also selected Clash as one of the 10 best films on its Critics' Faves at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

Clash is a joint production effort between: 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 distributes it in France and the rest of the world.