Hani Mustafa attends the awards ceremony at this year's Cairo International Film Festival, leaving for a final treat before the feast is over When the Belgian film director Jan Verheyen, winner of the Silver Pyramid at this year's Cairo International Film Festival which closed earlier this week, was called upon to receive his prize, he started his speech by saying that he had never seen "so many beautiful dresses brought together at one party." He was not exaggerating. The star-studded gala party that ended this year's festival was heavily attended by the rich and glamourous, even if it was noticeable that few of the international film stars present at the festival's opening event had turned out to attend its closure. The ceremony began with a dance performance, during which a female dancer apparently danced her way to becoming a famous star. Then the preliminaries ended, and the serious business of the prize-giving began. Egyptian actors and actresses were called upon by the master of ceremonies to present the winners with their awards, most of which by common consent had been very well earned. From the 18 films competing in this year's International Competition, seven European films reaped all of this year's awards (listed in the box below), while in the Arab Competition an Egyptian film, Basra, won a joint award for best script with the Palestinian film Laila's Birthday. Rachid Masharawi, the writer and director of the latter film, dedicated his award to the besieged people of Gaza, while the Swiss filmmaker Oliver Paulus, winner of the award for Best Artistic Contribution for his film Tandoori Love, expressed his deep sadness about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Everybody thanked the organisers for all their efforts, while American actress Mira Sorvino, besides thanking the organisers for giving her the opportunity to come to Egypt, also saluted First Lady Suzanne Mubarak for her humanitarian work. The ceremony ended with a screening of the film that had won the award for Best Arab Film, the Algeria film Mascarades, directed by Lyes Salem. CIFF AWARDS International Film Competition Golden Pyramid for Best Film: Return to Hansala, directed by Chus Gutiérrez (Spain) Silver Pyramid for Special Jury Award: Cut Loose, directed by Jan Verheyen (Belgium) Best Actress Award: Yolande Moreau, for her role in Séraphine (France) Best Actor Award: Juan Diego Botto, for his role in El Greco (Greece) Best Director Award: Pernille Ficher Christen, for Dancers (Denmark) Best Screenwriter Award, awarded jointly to: Bram Renders for Cut Loose (Belgium), and Safy Nebbou & Cyril Gomez Mathieu for Mark of an Angel (France) Best Second work of a Director Award: Safy Nebbou for Mark of an Angel (France) Best Artistic Contribution Award: Tandoori Love, directed by Oliver Paulus (Switzerland) Special Mention: The Blind Sunflowers, directed by José Luis Cuerda (Spain) Special Mention: Director of Photography Han Yun Zhong for Finding Shangri-La (China) International Critics Award: Director Chus Gutierrz for Return to Hansala (Spain) Arab Film Competition Best Arabic Film Award: Mascarades, directed by Lyes Salem (Algeria) Best Arabic Screenplay Award, awarded jointly to: Rashid Masharawi for Laila's Birthday (Palestine)and Ahmed Rashwan for Basra (Egypt) Digital Feature Competition Golden Award: Dot, directed and produced by Dervi Zaim (Turkey) Silver Award: Goodbye, directed by Kimura and produced by Hirotaka Kuwahara (Japan)
