Amin Abbas

Sharjah Art Foundation announced the winners of this year’s Sharjah Film Platform Awards, identifying outstanding films in each of four categories based on genre and length: documentary feature, documentary short, fiction feature, and fiction short.

This year’s films were selected from more than 100 documentary and fiction nominations, submitted individually by international industry professionals. The 38 films chosen for the competition section were then evaluated by an international jury, which determined the Sharjah Film Platform Award winners.

This year’s jury included Clara Helbig (filmmaker and curator), Irit Neidhardt (founder of MEC Film, producer, curator), Bina Paul (film editor, director, joint president of the Network for the Promotion of Asian and Pacific Cinema), Silke Schmickl (lead curator of moving image, M+, Hong Kong), Yasmina Tawil (film programmer, director of film programming at the Arab Film and Media Institute), and Khalid Ziada (founder of the London Palestine Film Festival).

The sixth edition of Sharjah Film Platform (SFP6) brought together nearly 50 regional and international films highlighting independent cinema, culture, and community. Alongside the film screenings, the annual film festival also presented a public program of talks and panel discussions focused on ideas of solidarity and resistance.

SFP6 award winners:

Best Documentary Feature Film: Joonam (2023), directed by Sierra Urich

Best Documentary Short Film: An Asian Ghost Story (2023), directed by: Bo Wang

Honorable Mention Documentary Short: Bar Saar (2023), directed by Mohammed Jassim

Best Fiction Feature Film: Miyamatsu To Yamashita “Roleless” (2022), directed by: Masahiko Sato, Yutaro Seki, Kentaro Hirase

Honorable Mention Fiction Feature: Aata Vel Zaali (It’s Time To Go), directed by: Ananth Mahadevan

Best Fiction Short Film: One Day When I Was Lost (2023), directed by: Soufiane Adel

Honorable Mention Fiction Short: Mulika (2022), directed by: Maisha Maene

The sixth edition of Sharjah Film Platform (SFP6) took place from Dec. 8 to 17 in Mirage City Cinema, the open-air theatre in Sharjah’s historical quarter; VOX Cinemas; City Centre Al Zahia; and the Sharjah Institute of Theatrical Arts, where it featured a range of independent cinema and experimental filmmaking. The annual film festival foregrounded the transformative role of cinema in our culture and community.

Sharjah Film Platform (SFP) is an annual festival of independent cinema and documentary filmmaking where audiences can discover new approaches to film and art. The 10-day event—which includes a range of regional and international films, talks by filmmakers and industry professionals, musical concerts, and mixers—is centered around Mirage City Cinema, the open-air theatre in Sharjah’s historical quarter.

Organized by the Sharjah Art Foundation, SFP foregrounds recent cinematic achievements by international filmmakers and artists, noteworthy classics from around the region, as well as experimental films that challenge the idea of what film practice is today.