Marrakech Film Festival bestows Palestinian film 'Happy Holidays' with top award

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MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP) —

The Marrakech International Film Festival bestowed its top prize Friday on “Happy Holidays,” a Palestinian drama set in Israel whose screenplay won an award at the Venice Film Festival in September.

The film, directed by Scandar Copti, follows Israeli and Palestinian characters facing familial and societal pressures in present-day Haifa and stars both professional and non-professional actors. It is the first Palestinian film to win Marrakech’s Etoile D’Or award.

Screenwriter Mona Copti in an acceptance speech said the film team’s joy at winning was tempered by war in the Middle East and she denounced what she called the dehumanization of Palestinians

Eight features, each a director’s first or second film, competed in the festival. The winning films tackled social issues through the lens of family, a theme that the festival’s artistic director Remi Bonhomme underlined at its opening.

The festival awarded its jury prize to two additional films from Somalia and Argentina. The nine-member jury awarded Mo Harawe’s “The Village Next to Paradise” — a story about a family living under the threat of drone strikes dreaming of a better life — and Silvina Schnicer’s “The Cottage” about children who commit an unspeakable act at a rich family’s summer vacation home.

“The Village Next to Paradise” participated last year in the Marrakech festival’s Atlas Workshops, an initiative to develop filmmakers from Morocco, the Middle East and Africa and promote their work. In his acceptance speech, Harawe lauded the film’s Somali cast and crew and highlighted the significance of the award for Somalia.

Cecilia Rainero, the lead actor of “The Cottage,” thanked the jury and said it was meaningful amid Argentinian President Javier Milei’s moves to defund the country’s film industry.