Sudanese filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani’s feature COTTON QUEEN continues its successful international festival journey, winning Best Feature Film and the South African Guild of Editors Award for Best Edit at the 47th Durban International Film Festival, just days after screening at the Amman International Film Festival.
 
The two awards add to the film’s growing list of international accolades since its world premiere at the Critics’ Week of the Venice International Film Festival. It previously won the Audience Award at the Doha Film Festival, where it had its Arab premiere; the Golden Alexander "Theo Angelopoulos" Award for Best Feature Film at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival; the TV5 Monde Award for Best First Feature at the Carthage Film Festival; the Grand Prize at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH); and the Jury Prize for Best Film at the Luxor African Film Festival, further cementing its place as one of the most celebrated Arab and African films of recent years
 
Set in a cotton-farming village in Sudan, Nafisa grows up on heroic stories of resistance against British colonizers told by her grandmother, the village matriarch Al-Sit. But when a young businessman arrives from abroad with a new development plan and genetically modified cotton, Nafisa becomes the center of a power struggle over the village’s future. As she awakens to her strength, she sets out to save the cotton fields—and herself. Nothing will ever be the same again.
 
COTTON QUEEN is a co-production between Germany’s Strange Bird GmbH, Jip Film Verleih, and Storming Donkey Productions; France’s Maneki Films; Palestine’s Philistine Films; Egypt’s Film Clinic and MAD Solutions; Qatar; and Saudi Arabia. MAD Distribution handles its distribution in the Arab world in collaboration with Film Clinic Indie Distribution.
 
The film is written and directed by Suzannah Mirghani, shot by Frida Marzouk, the cinematographer behind PROMISED SKY, which opened the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes this year. The score is composed by Amine Bouhafa, known for AISHA CAN’T FLY AWAY and ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA, both Cannes contenders, with editing by Amparo Mejías, Simon Blasi, and Frank Müller.
 
The film stars Mihad Murtada, Rabha Mohamed Mahmoud, Talaat Fareed, Haram Bisheer, Mohamed Musa, and Hassan Mohi El Din.
 
The film is produced by Caroline Daube and Didar Domehri, with co-producers Annemarie Jacir, Ossama Bawardi, Jessica Khoury, Mohamed Hefzy, Alaa Karkouti, Maher Diab, Jutta Feit, Julia Peters, Stephanie Plattner, Suzannah Mirghani, Gordon Spragg, Michael Arnon, and Laurine Dietrich, alongside executive producers Alexander Funk and Rasha Abu El Reesh.
 
Suzannah Mirghani is a Russian-Sudanese filmmaker. Her short film AL-SIT (2020), available on Netflix Middle East, won the Canal+ Award at Clermont-Ferrand in 2021, among other international prizes. Her recent shorts include VIRTUAL VOICE (2021, Tribeca Film Festival) and KAMALA IBRAHIM ISHAG: STATES OF ONENESS (2022), commissioned by Serpentine Galleries. COTTON QUEEN (2025) won the ArteKino Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022 and marks her debut feature.