Egyptian filmmakers received several awards at the third edition of the Alexandria Short Film Festival, which took place from 27 April to 1 May. The festival was held at the Anfoushy Cultural Palace, where around 36 films were screened to the public for free for four days in the Freedom Center for Creativity's cinema hall. The festival's awards are granted in three distinct categories: the official competition for the short film, the competition for the first or second work and the documentary film competition. The best film award in the first category went to director Mohamed Hisham's Jareedy. The jury prize for the short film category was awarded to directors Saad Bin Mohamed and Hisham Abdel-Khalek's Behind the I. Other Egyptian films that won included director Ahmed Hamed's Necessity has no Law, which took the best prize award, and Nahla El-Nemr's A Way Out, which took the jury prize, both in the documentary category. The festival says in its mission that it aims to spread motion picture and film culture throughout the city of Alexandria, make short films available to audiences across various social strata, and promote the exchange of different Arab cultures through screenings of fiction, documentary and animation films. The festival also holds free year-round seminars and workshops focused on helping aspiring filmmakers hone their crafts. The seminars presented this year ranged from a 'How to deal with the festival scene' seminar by Malek Khouri to a film critique workshop by film critic Ramy Abdelrazek. The jury panel included editor Ghada Gebara, film critic Malek Khouri, actress Nashwa Mustafa, producer Hesham Soliman and screenwriter Wessam Soliman. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture
