The Journey Wins Best Director and Actress Awards at Malmo Arab Film Festival

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Coinciding with Its Commercial Success in Lebanon

The Journey Wins Best Director and Actress Awards at Malmo Arab Film Festival


Director Mohamed Al Daradji's film The Journey has just accumulated a total of 8 awards to its cabinet of accolades after winning Best Director and Best Actress (Zahraa Ghandour) at the closing ceremony of the Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden. This comes at the time the film is celebrating a successful commercial release at Metropolis Empire Sofil Cinema in Beirut, which kicked off last week.

The Journey's total record of awards include: a Special Mention at the Oran Arabic International Film Festival in Algeria, Jury Award and Best Actress Award at the Muscat International Film Festival, in addition to the Special Jury Award at its Egyptian premiere at the Sharm El-Sheikh Film Festival, and the Grand Prize of the Arab World Institute to director Mohamed Al Daradji and Best Actress Award to Zahraa Ghandour at the Festival des Cinémas Arabes à Paris in France.

The film's events take place in Baghdad in 2006. As Sara stands on the cusp of committing an unthinkable act, an unforeseen and awkward encounter gives her the opportunity to witness the potential consequences of her destructive action. But is this a second chance or an admission of guilt?

Recently, Iraq's Ministry of Culture selected The Journey to be its official submission to the 2019 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The Journey screened at more than 10 international festivals all over the world. It landed its Arab world premiere at the 14th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), within the Muhr Feature competition, competed in the official competitions of the BFI London Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival and made its US premiere at the Miami Film Festival. The Journey also screened at the Cairo Cinema Days in Egypt.

Directed by Mohamed Al Daradji, who co-wrote the film with Isabelle Stead, The Journey stars Zahraa Ghandour and Ameer Jbara. The film is produced by Human Film, Iraqi Independent Film Center (IIFC), in cooperation with Lionceau Films, Iraq Al-Rafidain and Iraqi Media Network. The Journey received grants from the Doha Film Institute, AFAC - The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, World Cinema Fund (WCF), the Centre National du Cinéma et de l'image Animée (CNC) of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Institut Français, Netherlands Film Fund, SANAD Development Fund (Abu Dhabi Film Festival) and Screen Yorkshire. The film is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.