INSHALLAH A BOY wins Atlas’ grand prize for post-production at the Marrakech International Film Festival

release date November 21 2022

Amjad Al-Rasheed's film project INSHALLAH A BOY received on Thursday the grand prize for post-production (€25,000) at the Atlas Workshops of the 19th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival, which is running from November 11th to the 19th.

“We are overjoyed to have received the grand prize from Atlas Workshops and are excited to show the film to audiences as soon as it is completed,” said Amjad Al-Rasheed.

Currently, the film project is also a part of the Cairo Film Connection of the 44th Cairo International Film Festival.

The Atlas Workshops are an industry and talent development program initiated in 2018 by the Marrakech International Film Festival. Through the program, the festival works side by side with a new generation of Moroccan, Arab, and African filmmakers and creates a space for exchange between international professionals and regional talents.

INSHALLAH A BOY, is a four-time award-winning film project from the Final Cut of the 79th Venice International Film Festival. More specifically, it won the La Biennale di Venezia Jury Prize worth €5,000. It also received €12,000 in funding from Oticons, which will allow it to work with the company's international composers to create the film's score. Moreover, it received a $5,000 award from the El-Gouna Film Festival and a €2,500 award from the Festival International de Films de Fribourg.

Previously, INSHALLAH A BOY (INSHALLAH WALAD) received a monetary prize of $10,000 presented by the Arab Radio and Television Network (ART) – a partner of the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) at the 5th Cairo Film Connection.

Additionally, the project received production and post-production support from the Royal Film Commission in two cycles, along with production support from the Doha Film Institute.

INSHALLAH A BOY follows the story of Nawal, who suddenly loses her husband and finds herself facing society and its laws. However, things turn upside down when she gives birth to a boy.

Directed by Amjad Al-Rasheed and co-written alongside Delphine Augte and Rula Nasser, INSHALLAH A BOY stars Muna Hawa, Haitham Omari, Salwa Nakkara, Yumna Marwan, Mohammad Al-Jizawi, Eslam Al-Awadi, and Cilina Rababa.

The film was also produced by Imaginarium Films (Rula Nasser and Aseel Abu Ayyash) and Bayt Al-Shawareb (THEEB, THE ALLEYS). Meanwhile, MAD Solutions and Lagoonie Film Production are in charge of distributing it all over the Arab world.

INSHALLAH A BOY marks Amjad's second collaboration with MAD, as the latter handled distribution for his short film THE PARROT with Darin J. Sallam, which received several international awards, including the Jury Award for Best Short Film at the Mizna’s Twin Cities Arab Film Festival in the US and the Malmö Arab Film Festival. The film also had its world premiere at the 2016 Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) and is now on OSN.

Al-Rasheed is a Jordanian director and a Berlinale Talents alumnus with an MFA degree in Cinematic Arts. His short films were nominated and awarded at several Arab and international film festivals, including the very selective Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung for THE PARROT.

In 2016, Screen International chose him as one of the five Arab Stars of Tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Rula Nasser is a Jordanian independent producer with experience in all aspects of production, ranging from commercials and TV series to low-budget movies and big-budget businesses.

She started her career in the film industry by working on several international productions for the BBC and Discovery channels. She also worked at the Royal Film Commission - Jordan (RFC) for five years and established the Filmmaker’s Support Program.

In 2011, Rula started her own production company, The Imaginarium Films, with the goal of finding new talent in the Arab world and making universally appealing stories set there.