The Arab Film Days competition program

For the first time, Arab Film Days will feature a competition program. Read more about the competition titles, jury and award here.

Red., 07 Mar 2022

This year's edition of Arab Film Days is the first in the festival's history to feature a competition program. Since 2011 the festival has demonstrated the large scope of impressive filmmaking in the Arabic region, and the competition program provides us with an additional opportunity to highlight and reward the films and filmmakers at the festival.

The competition program consists of 6 films, fiction and documentary, that compete for the Arab Film Days Award. The award consists of 10.000 NOK donated by the Oslo Festival Agency.

The award will be presented before the screening of the closing film Memory Box on Saturday, March 19th at 19.00.

This is the competition jury:

Mohamed Chakiri (b. 1990) begun his career with skateboarding and progressed into still photography. Through street photography he discovered the power a strong photo can have as a storytelling medium. Chakiri is a co-founder of record label Mutual Intentions, where he, along with others, handles the visual department. He studied Film Direction at The Norwegian Film School and is in the process of developing stories, with a large appetite for music. The can find him behind turntables around Oslo.

Iman Meskini (b. 1997) might be best known for her role as Sana in the successful TV show SKAM on NRK, where she helmed the leading role in the fourth and final season. In 2018 she received the Bridge Builder Award for her contribution to reducing the distance between people of different religions. She has toured Norway as a public speaker, and in 2019 she launched the podcast Perspektiv in collaboration with the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Siri Nerbø (b. 1986) is a documentary filmmaker and sign language interpreter based in Oslo. She studied Film Art at Oslo Metropolitan University, specializing in creative documentary filmmaking. Her films have been screened internationally. What Does It Mean? (2018) and With Abu Jamal (2019) received special mentions at Bergen International Film Festival and The Norwegian Short Film Festival, respectively. The latter film was screened at Arab Film Days in 2020.

These are the films in competition: