Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays, Damian Kocur’s Under The Volcano, Silvina Schnicer’s The Cottage and Mo Harawe’s The Village Next to Paradise shared the awards handed out at the 21st edition of the Marrakech Intl. Film Festival. Happy Holidays grabbed the top prize in the Étoile d’Or and the jury led by Luca Guadagnino who also decided to award both actresses (Wafaa Aoun and Manar Shehab) with the Best Actress Award. The Palestinian film was selected for the Orizzonti section in Venice.
Under The Volcano first landed Best Performance by an Actor (Roman Lutskyi) and Kocur also doubled up winning the Best Director Award. The Jury Prize was awarded ex aequo to Schnicer’s The Cottage and Harawe’s The Village Next to Paradise. We had the pleasure of interviewing all three filmmakers (look for the video interviews shortly). This year’s jury also include Ali Abbasi, Zoya Akhtar, Patricia Arquette, Virginie Efira, Jacob Elordi, Andrew Garfield, Nadia Kounda, and Santiago Mitre.
