I have to tell something that happened last night during the JCC 2022 closing ceremony.
Last night, I was sitting with the film of the film “Sharaf” in competition fiction feature films, therefore with actor Ahmed Al Muniray, director Samir Nasr, Tunisian actor Khaled Houissa and Lebanese actor Fadi Abi Samra.
The price for the best decor was announced and was awarded to the film “Sharaf”, and it was the film producer, Bilel Athimmi, who went on stage receive the prize.
Then the prize for the best scenario was also announced, and it was still for the film “Sharaf”. The director went on stage to take his prize. He had also pronounced a few words of thanks, including for his co-scriptwriter the writer Sonallah Ibrahim.
When he returned among us, we wanted to take a photo with the price and we had found that the certificate was on behalf of the Syrian film “The Road”.
The director then called a JCC person and asked him for an explanation. She told him that she would go. She returned to tell him that there was an error in the certificate and that she will be corrected.
Besides, just after, another person came to tell him that this certificate will be corrected after the ceremony.
The director reacted by saying that if there had been a mistake and that another film had won this award, he could understand, but that he wanted it to be publicly announced on stage to lift all misunderstandings. This person told him that he was the winner and that the certificate will be corrected.
At the end of the ceremony, journalists had come to interview the director and the actors, who had been congratulated for the 3 prizes in the film: Best decor, best screenplay and Tanit de Bronze.
Then, Samir Nasr the director, and Ahmed Al Muniray the main actor, remained at the City of Culture, pending the correction of the certificate.
A little later, Samir and Ahmed came to the evening and told me that the certificate had still not been corrected and that they had seen another person responsible for the festival who had told them that “Sharaf” had not won the prize for the best scenario, and when they had asked for explanations, she had ignored them and moved away from them.
As I was at that time with two CNCI officials, they had told the director that what had happened was unacceptable and that a solution should be found, both for him and for the credibility of the festival.
They had assured him that since the price had been given to him in the presence of the members of the jury and that none of them had opposed it, it was therefore that he had really won this award. They still assured him that Sunday morning, this error will be corrected without fail and that he will have his certificate. It was a real promise.
Last night, moreover, the Facebook page of the Festival had announced that the winner of the Best Screen Prize is the film “Sharaf”. This morning, I checked on the Facebook page, the price of the scenario had disappeared. As if they did not know who really won it. This afternoon, on this same Facebook page, the price is reappeared, but this time for the Syrian film “The road”.
When in 2017, there was such an error in the Oscars, she was immediately corrected on stage. As the director of the announced film Winner began began his thank you speech, a member of the Oscar Academy had intervened to announce that an error had occurred. It had been immediate.
Yesterday, not only did nothing like it happened, but in addition, Samir was assured several times that he was indeed the winner of this prize. Is it normal? Why did no member of the jury react immediately? For what ? Is it to avoid a scandal during the transmission of the ceremony on TV? Did the festival management thought to pass the error discreetly?
It was necessary to either correct immediately or to assume and give this price to the film “Sharaf” or even give two prizes ex æquo of scenario to the two films, everything was to find an honorable solution.
The festival has to find an exit door. It is about its credibility. The whole festival will suffer. And the whole record may be called into question.
Remember that the members of the jury were all present and that none of them governed, neither when the winner was announced, nor when the director went on stage and thanked his co-series, the very famous Sonallah Ibrahim writer. Besides, just the name of this author will make the Arab press react. So do we need such a scandal and controversy?
