SAF announces Sharjah Film Platform 8 award winners

For the 2025 edition, films in the competition programme were nominated by an international committee of filmmakers. The selection featured a wide range of films from different parts of the world, including Ecuador, Lebanon, Malta,  Palestine, Zambia and the UAE, among others.

An international jury then reviewed the selected films and determined this year’s SFP award winners. The jury members included:

Fiction

•            Lindiwe Dovey: Professor of Film and Screen Studies at The School of Oriental and African Studies University of London

•            Hania Mroué: Founder of Metropolis Cinema, Lebanon

•            Soleil Gharbieh: Film Program Manager at Arab Fund for Arts and Culture

Documentary

•            Dora Bouchoucha: Producer and Founder of Nomadis Images

•            Chalida Uabumrungjit: Director of the Thai Film Archive, Thailand

•            Manuel F. Contreras: Documentary Filmmaker and Educator

SFP8 Award Recipients:

Best Documentary Feature Film

Marching in the Dark (2024)

Director: Kinshuk Surjan

Belgium, India, Netherlands

109 Minutes | Marathi with Arabic and English subtitles

Fighting against traditional cultural norms where widows are cast aside, Sanjivani is determined to provide a better future for her children after her farmer-husband’s suicide. She joins a discussion a group where the women band together to end the cycle of debt and climate-related instability. Empowered by community, shared stories of resilience and unexpected solidarity, Sanjivani cautiously forges a path forward.

Best Documentary Short Film

Morgenkreis (Morning Circle) (2025)

Director: Basma Al-Sharif

Canada, United Arab Emirates

20 Minutes | Arabic, Armenian and German with Arabic and English subtitles

This short visceral narrative film unfolds in three parts, each describing loss. From the earliest experiences of separation to the imperceptible violence associated with integrating into a new country when yours is no longer livable, Morgenkreis follows a father and son in their intimate rituals as they prepare to start the day and head to kindergarten. Morgenkreis is an ode to migrant assimilation under western cultural power structures.

This film is supported by the SFP Short Film Production Grant (2024).

Best Fiction Feature Film

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024)

Director: Rungano Nyoni

Zambia, United Kingdom, Ireland

99 Minutes | Bemba and English with Arabic and English subtitles

On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family.

Best Fiction Short Film

Le Diable et la Bicyclette (The Devil and the Bicycle) (2024)

Director: Sharon Hakim

France

24 Minutes | Arabic with English subtitles

Yasma is a 13-year-old Lebanese girl whose parents are of different faiths. As she prepares for her First Communion, she finds herself navigating emerging feelings of sensuality and the weight of cultural expectations. In the midst of a religious rite of passage, Yasma discovers the often unspoken boundaries between innocence and self-awareness.