Category: RECORDS IN ME & AFRICA*

Award Winners – 43rd Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) : December 2021

Egyptian star Mohamed Mamdouh received the Best Actor Award for his role in Abu Saddam, which premiered at the festival.

The Best Actress Award went to Swamy Rotolo for her performance in A Chiara, directed by Jonas Carpignano (Italy – France), while The Golden Pyramid Award for Best Film went to The Hole In The Fence, by director Joaquin del Paso (Mexico, Poland), and produced by Fernanda de la Peza and Joaquin del Paso. Blind Spot, by director Lotfi Achour (Tunisia, France) won the Best Short Film Award.

creening over 111 films from 63 countries, the activities of the CIFF’s 43rd edition ran from 25 November to 5 December, including 34 world premieres, workshops, seminars, as well as ceremonies to honour a number of renowned filmmakers, including Egyptian actors Nelly, Karim Abdel-Aziz and Indian composer A.R. Rahman.

The CIFF awards went to:

International Competition awards

Henry Barakat Award for Best Artistic Contribution: Jose Angel Alayon for the cinematography of They Carry Death (Spain – Colombia)

Best Actress Award: Swamy Rotolo for her performance in A Chiara, directed by Jonas Carpignano (Italy – France)

Best Actor Award: Mohamed Mamdouh for his performance in Abu Saddam, directed by Nadine Khan (Egypt)

Naguib Mahfouz Award for Best Screenplay: Péter Kerekes and Ivan Ostrochovský for 107 Mothers, directed by Péter Kerekes (Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Ukraine)

The Bronze Pyramid Award for Best First or Second Feature of a Director: Aloners, by director Hong Seong-Eun (South Korea)

The Silver Pyramid: Small Body, directed by Laura Samani (Italy, France)

Special Jury Award for Best Director: Laura Samani for Small Body (Italy, France, Slovenia)

The Golden Pyramid Award for Best Film: The Hole In The Fence, by director Joaquin del Paso (Mexico, Poland), produced by Fernanda de la Peza and Joaquin del Paso

International Short Film Competition awards

Youssef Chahine Award for Best Short Film: Blind Spot, by director Lotfi Achour (Tunisia, France)

The Special Jury Award: It’s Nothing Nagy, Just Hang Up!, by director Youhanna Nagy (Egypt)

 The Horizons of Arab Cinema Competition awards

Saad Eldin Wahba Award for Best Film: Awarded for directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige for their film Memory Box (Lebanon, France)

The Special Jury Award: Fiasco, by director Nicolas Khoury (Lebanon, the Netherlands)

Best Non-Fiction Film Award: From Cairo, by director Hala Galal (Egypt)

Best Acting Performance Award: Afef Ben Mahmoud for her performance in Streams, directed by Mehdi Hmili (Tunisia, Luxembourg, France)

Special Mention: A Second Life, by director Anis Lassoued (Tunisia)

International Critics’ Week Competition awards

Shadi Abdel-Salam Award for Best Film: Awarded to Ameer Fakher Eldin, director of The Stranger (Syria, Palestine, Germany)

The Special Jury Award: Wild Roots, by Hajni Kis (Hungary, Slovakia)

Special Mention: Actress Arcelia Ramírez for her performance in La Civil, by director Teodora Ana Mihai (Belgium, Romania, Mexico)

Best Arab Film Award: The Stranger, by Ameer Fakher Eldin (Syria, Palestine, Germany), produced by Tony Copti, Jiries Copti, and Dorothe Beinemeier

Special Mention: Fiasco, by Nicolas Khoury (Lebanon, Netherlands)

FIPRESCI Award: Tomorrow, directed by Dhafer L’Abidine (Tunisia)

Audience Award: Daughters of Abdel-Rahman’, directed by Zaid Abu Hamdan (Jordan)

www.ciff.org.eg

source/content: english.ahram.org.eg

___________

____________________________________________________________

EGYPT / FRANCE / JORDAN / PALESTINE / SYRIA / TUNISIA

Mona Sewilam Wins COMESA Media Award in TV category : November 2021

Mona Sewilam. Journalist.

Mona Sewilam has the COMESA media award (TV category), on the sidelines of the 21st COMESA Heads of State and Government Summit held in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital.

The winning documentary is an abridged special edition of one of the episodes of her programme titled “ON Africa” produced and aired on ON Network TV.

Titled “COMESA: Between Equal Opportunities and African Integration” the film was presented, scripted and directed by Sewilam.

It focuses on the important role of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) whose 21 member states have a population of 583 million which is about half of Africa’s population, and with a gross domestic product of $805 billion, and a global export/import trade in goods worth $324 billion. This renders COMESA the largest market for trade and investment in Africa.

The documentary which was mostly filmed in Zambia where the COMESA secretariat is based also highlights Egypt’s efforts to boost intra-African trade and achieve African integration. The documentary covered the significance of the Cairo-Cape Town Road that runs through Zambia. It filmed the successful Zambia-Egypt Joint Farm Venture located in Zambia, which will benefit from the road and COMESA’s incentives on exporting its products to COMESA member states like Egypt.

Sewilam previously won the COMESA award on the sidelines of the 20th COMESA Summit in the Zambian capital Lusaka.

source/content : english.ahram.org.eg

___________

Mona Sewilam wins the COMESA media award in TV category

_________

EGYPT

UAE Breaks 2 World Records for ‘ Biggest Flower Word and Number ‘ to Mark Golden Jubilee : November 26th, 2021

To mark the UAE’s Golden Jubilee, local flower delivery service Floward organised an event to break not one but two world records.

Visitors showed up at the Address Montgomerie in Dubai, to help create the world’s largest word and number made out of flowers.

The floral display spelt out “UAE 50”.

Dubai delivery service Floward is the creator of the floral display now in the Guinness World Records.

source/content: thenationalnews.com

_____________

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Ahmed Bucheeri, Official Adjudicator – MENA giving Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani, Floward CEO the Guinness World Record certificate for the World’s Largest Flower Number and the Largest Flower, Floward Word Guinness World Record. Ruel Pableo for The National

___________________________________
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (U.A.E.)

Egyptian-American Dr. Sherif Zaki : Founder & Chief of the Infectious Disease Pathology Branch – Coordinating Centre for Infectious Diseases (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia (1955-2021)

Sherif Zaki (1955-2021): ‘CDC’s secret weapon’. Pathalogist. Legendary Disease Detective. Infectious Disease Expert.

Prominent pathologist Doctor Sherif Zaki, founder and chief of the Infectious Disease Pathology Branch in the Coordinating Centre for Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, Georgia, passed away on 21 November, 2021.

Dr. Zaki was renowned for cracking medical mysteries by finding signatures of pathogens in diseased cells.

Through the application of classic and new technologies, Dr. Zaki and his team have made significant contributions to advancing the understanding of the pathogenesis and epidemiology of emerging infectious diseases.

Moreover, for his leadership, scientific contributions and commitment to Centre for Disease Control’s (CDC) public health mission, Dr. Zaki has been widely recognised and awarded, including receiving the US Health and Human Services Secretary’s Awards for Distinguished Service – the department’s highest honour – nine times.

Dr. Zaki and his staff were the first to identify the Hanta virus, later called the Sin Nombre virus, that caused the deaths of several people in the Navajo nation in the Southwest in 1993.

He also helped discover the Zika virus in the brain tissue of babies stricken with the mosquito-borne virus in Brazil, proving that it could be transmitted during pregnancy.

Dr. Zaki also helped identify the mechanisms that made Ebola and SARS so contagious and lethal.

Sherif Ramzy Zaki was born 24 November 1955, in Alexandria, Egypt.

He spent the first six years of his life in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where his father was attending graduate school.

Dr. Zaki received his medical degree from Alexandria University in 1978, before earning a master’s degree at his alma mater in pathology.

He earned a doctorate in experimental pathology from Emory University in Atlanta in 1989.

Dr. Zaki’s data on Scopus database showed that Zaki had published in the neighborhood of 400 scientific papers and had an advanced “H score” of 102 thus placing his impact on the field way above the 35-70 range for Noble Prize hopefuls.

source/content: english.ahram.org.eg

_________________________

______________________________________________________________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA) / EGYPT / EGYPTIAN AMERICAN / ARAB AMERICAN

Saudia’s Dr. Mohammed Al-Issa, MWL Chief Receives ‘Bridge Builder Award’ in Oslo, Norway : November 2021

Dr. Mohammed Bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa

Dr. Mohammed Bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Muslim World League (MWL) and Chairman of the Muslim Scholars Association, has received the Norwegian Bridge Builder Award at a ceremony in Oslo.

He was one of three recipients of the award in 2021, which is given to people who have helped to build bridges between individuals, nations and societies.

The other two were Rev. Prof. Dr. Ioan Sauca, acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches, and Michael Melchior, Chief Rabbi and leader of the Religious Peace Initiative in Israel.

source/content: arabnews.com

___________

Dr. Mohammed Bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Muslim World League (MWL) and Chairman of the Muslim Scholars Association, has received the Norwegian Bridge Builder Award. (Supplied) / pix: arabnews.com

________________

SAUDI ARABIA

Dubai Hosts ‘ Dubai Run 2021 ‘ the World’s Largest Run with 146,000 Participants : November 26th, 2021

Dubai hosts world’s largest run as 146,000 participants join Dubai Run on Sheikh Zayed Road.

Presented by Mai Dubai, the event was held on the closing weekend of this year’s Dubai Fitness Challenge (DFC), the citywide initiative of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum , Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, which aims to make Dubai the world’s fittest city.

Inspired by the vision of its leadership, Dubai is the only city in the world to offer its citizens, residents and visitors an entire month of all inclusive, free fitness events, including the Dubai Run, while also keeping the nation and its people safe and healthy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city’s superhighway, Sheikh Zayed Road, was transformed into a giant running track for Dubai Run, as participants of all ages and abilities ran and walked at their own pace on 5km and 10km routes.

As the sun rose, the city turned into a sea of blue as runners took to the streets in official Dubai Run t-shirts, supplied by Sun & Sand Sports, and kicked off the Run at the start line by the Museum of the Future. Passing some of Dubai’s instantly recognisable landmarks including Emirates Towers and Burj Khalifa, runners crossed the finishing line at Al Mustaqbal Street near Dubai World Trade Centre.

source/content: wam.ae

__________

____________________________________________

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (U.A.E.)

Egypt takes over Presidency of COMESA (Common Market for Eastern & Southern Africa) : November 2021

Egypt assumed the rotating presidency of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) at its 21st summit.

In his speech, El-Sisi said Egypt will work with COMESA member states to achieve their aspirations and encourage trade, including by seeking to complete a project linking the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Victoria.

During a meeting with COMESA Secretary-General Chileshe Kapwepwe, El-Sisi said Egypt’s presidency of the bloc will strive toward economic and regional integration.

About COMESA

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is a free trade area with 21 member states stretching from Tunisia to Eswatini.

source/content: arabnews.com

________

Egypt takes over Tuesday the chair of the COMESA – TV Screenshot / pix: egypttoday.com

________

EGYPT

Amal Amjahid Belgian-Moroccan Wins her 9th, Jiu-Jitsu World Champion Title : November 13th, 2021

Amal Amjahid. Athlete. Martial Arts. Jiu Jitsu Sports. Represents Belgium.

Belgian-Moroccan Jiu-Jitsu fighter Amal Amjahid , won on November 13 her 9th world champion title after defeating the French fighter Laurence Cousin Fouillat in the 2021 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship finale.

The 26-year-old secured the title in the “below 57 kilos” category with a victory by advantage following a score of 2-2.

Amal Amjahid began Jiu-Jitsu at the age of 7 in Brussels. From 2013 to 2019, she won many world titles and medals in various competitions such as the World Games, the Grand Slam Tokyo, and the European Jiu-Jitsu Championship

source/content: moroccoworldnews.com

__________

pix: moroccoworldnews.com

__________________________

BELGIAN / MOROCCAN

Aziza Chaouni Awarded Bronze for Sustainable Project at 6th Int’l Holcim Awards,Venice : November 13th, 2021

Aziza Chaouni. Architect. Educationist. Teacher.

The Fez-born architect was honored for her project on addressing climate change-induced tribal displacement.

The Moroccan architect earned both the Global Holcim Awards Bronze prize and the Acknowledgement Prize for her project “Cultural Interlude.” The project draws a self-sustaining music school and ecotourism center that aims to preserve the tribal cultural heritage in an oasis located in the town of M’Hamid El Ghizlane, in Zagora province. 

Chaouni is also the co-founder of the Bureau of Ecological Architecture and Systems of Tomorrow (EAST) with Takako Tajima, a renowned landscape architect based in Southern California. Tajima has won many prizes, including The Architectural League Prize from the Architecture League of New York in 2009.

www.azizachaouniprojects.com

source/content: moroccoworldnews.com

__________

Aziza Chaouni awarded at 6th International Holcim Awards / pix: moroccoworldnews.com

____________________

CANADA / MOROCCO

Emirati Rashid Al Mulla Wins Freestyle in UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship : November 2021

The Abu Dhabi Aquabike Team has recorded a new success for Emirati sports, with Rashid Al Mulla winning the title in the “Freestyle” category in the final round of the World Aquabike Championship, which was held in Kuwait.

The championship, witnessed the participation of 52 bikers from 26 countries from throughout the world.

Al Mulla won the gold medal and the overall title, reaching 100 points in the overall standings of the competition.

The Emirati’s latest triumph came after Abu Dhabi team-mate Emma-Nellie had won the ladies title in the Parallel Slalom World Championship staged under floodlights on Friday evening.

Al Mulla’s title is one of the new achievements for the Emirati team this summer, especially after the Abu Dhabi Team won gold and the title in the Formula 2 World Championship, as well as gold and silver in the 12-hour Formula 2 World Championship, in addition to leading the current world championship standings.

source/content: wam.ae

__________

____________________________________

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (U.A.E.)