Baghdad – The activities of the 13th session of the Al-Ghadeer International Media Festival concluded, where a large number of television, radio and media works and shows were presented. A group of award-winning films were also played during the festival. The Secretary-General of the festival, Modar Al-Bakaa, thanked the festival's guests for their presence, support, and enrichment of the festival's activities, hoping that they had enjoyed the days they spent in the festival. Al-Bakaa added that the 13th session was enriched with its guests, the films shown, and the jury committees for official competitions, noting that the secret of the success of this session is love despite the precautionary measures and the spread of the Coronavirus. Al-Bakaa thanked everyone who contributed to the success of the festival, especially the Iraqi, Egyptian, Arab and foreign media. "Many have advised that the works presented in the festival should be less, but we insisted on increasing their number this year, and you will notice the development taking place in the 13th session of the festival to accommodate this increase. We also aim to accommodate an additional audience," he added. The task of the jury to choose the winning works headed by journalist and writer Kadry El-Haggar was very difficult. Plenty of works were distinguished and addressed painful sides, losses and political and social projections but gave home to those watching. The writer said that 150 newspapers and magazines from 15 countries have participated in the event. It was characterized by strong competition due to the diversity of visions, ideas, experience, efficiency and journalistic output. Moreover, several standards and professional rules were followed in the evaluation part. He added that the jury gave an award to Al-Ahram newspaper in the field of integrated newspapers, for its integration in specialization, professionalism and diversity, and for its long history. Al Youm 7 website also won as the best news site because of its news and topics and the design of the site in a consistent and impressive manner He explained that the jury gave 11 awards for the best television work, four awards for the best radio work, three awards in the field of animation and six special awards for excellence in performance for media, television and radio channels. The committee confirmed that the countries that won the electronic content, social media competitions and radio and television works are Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Iran, Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Turkey and Russia, and that the submitted works were distinguished by creativity and diversity among cultures, and provided meaningful and distinct intellectually and culturally content. The thirteenth Al-Ghadeer International Festival was held in Baghdad with the participation of 183 media institutions, including 113 institutions from outside Iraq and 70 institutions from inside Iraq, in addition to 850 works of art from the countries of Syria, Lebanon, Oman, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, Bahrain, Palestine, Libya, and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, the UAE and Algeria, in addition to the participation of Iran, Turkey, Russia, Afghanistan, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. 600 television works competed for awards for the best television work during the festival, and 180 radio works competed for awards for best radio works, in addition to 51 works for children's 2D, 3D and 4D animation, in addition to various social media pages and channels, with the participation of 300 artistic and media figures.
