El Gouna 2025 – Twenty Films Compete for the Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films

The El Gouna Film Festival, scheduled from October 16 to 24, 2025, will once again host the Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films, a now unmissable event that is already in its seventh edition. Created jointly by European Film Promotion (EFP) and the Arab Cinema Center (ACC), this initiative highlights the richness and diversity of European cinema through the lens of 100 Arab critics from 16 countries. Their mission: to select three favorites among the twenty competing films, before announcing the final winner during the festival.

The 2025 line-up illustrates the variety of European storytelling and the originality of artistic approaches. Many of these films have already left their mark on major international festivals or represented their country in the race for the Academy Award for Best International Feature. Among them is Young Mothers by Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, winner of the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes, Little Trouble Girls by Slovenia’s Urška Djukić, and Sanatorium by Irish documentarian Gar O’Rourke. Other highly acclaimed works confirm their place in this competition: DJ Ahmet by Georgi Unkovski, awarded at Sundance, Cannes, and Sarajevo; Home Sweet Home by Frelle Petersen and Deaf by Eva Libertad, both recognized at the Berlinale Panorama; Yunan by Ameer Fakher Eldin, winner at the Arab Film Festival Rotterdam; and Celtic Utopia by Dennis Harvey and Lars Lovén, celebrated at the Locarno Critics’ Week. Animation is also represented with Tales from the Magic Garden by David Súkup, Jean-Claude Rozec, Patrik Pašš, and Leon Vidmar, already crowned at the Giffoni Film Festival.

Click here for the full list of nominated films

For Sonja Heinen, Managing Director of EFP, this year’s line-up reflects the scope and diversity of European cinema: “We are delighted to welcome new critics to the jury this year. Each brings a unique perspective, enriching the dialogue and further supporting the circulation of films. The twenty competing works reflect the vitality and plurality of European filmmaking.”

From the Arab Cinema Center, co-founders Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab stress the importance of the partnership with EFP: “It is always a pleasure to renew this collaboration and give Arab critics the opportunity to shine a spotlight on European cinema in our region. These exchanges also open new horizons for filmmakers.”

At El Gouna, Artistic Director Marianne Khoury highlights the significance of this event within the festival’s dynamic: “We are proud to host the Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films. This meeting between Arab critics and European cinema illustrates our mission to build bridges, foster intercultural dialogue, and affirm the essential role of Arab festivals in this interaction.”

Since its creation in 2019, the award has honored several films that went on to become emblematic. The first edition recognized God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya by Macedonian filmmaker Teona Strugar Mitevska, a powerful work on female emancipation that had already made waves at the Berlinale and resonated strongly in the Arab region thanks to its bold treatment of tradition and patriarchy. The following year, German director Christian Petzold won for Undine, a contemporary take on the aquatic legend, widely acclaimed for its poetic imagery and Paula Beer’s performance.

In 2021, the award went to Slovak filmmaker Peter Kerekes for 107 Mothers, a hybrid between fiction and documentary exploring motherhood behind prison walls in Ukraine, sparking rich debate on the representation of women and marginalized communities. In 2022, veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski moved critics with EO, a modern reimagining of Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar. Told through the eyes of a donkey, the film captivated festivals and demonstrated the power of experimental perspectives on the world.

In 2023, Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki was celebrated for Fallen Leaves, a tender and melancholic chronicle of two lonely souls who meet in Helsinki, confirming his unique minimalist style already honored at Cannes. Finally, in 2024, the award went to The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof, a remarkable Iranian film of major political significance, also honored at Cannes with several prizes, including the Special Jury Award. The film struck a particular chord in the Arab world with its courage and narrative force.

This retrospective of the previous six winners demonstrates the award’s ability to identify works of broad aesthetic and thematic diversity while offering them expanded visibility in the Arab region, where critics play a key role as cultural mediators.

This year, the list of 100 participating critics includes several Tunisians, underlining the place of Tunisian film criticism within the Arab landscape. Among them are Lamia Guiga, Ikbal Zalila, Samira Daimi, Tarek Ben Chaabane – current Director General of the Carthage Film Festival 2025 – as well as myself, Neïla Driss, alongside many other distinguished voices from across the region.

Click here for the full list of the Arab film critics by country 

Supported by Creative Europe – the MEDIA program of the European Union, the award aims not only to promote the diversity of European works but also to highlight the voice of Arab critics, considered essential mediators between films and audiences. More broadly, it seeks to encourage distributors and industry professionals to take an interest in works that might otherwise struggle to reach the Arab region without this platform.

Founded in 2017, the El Gouna Film Festival has, in less than a decade, established itself as a major platform for Arab and international cinema. Through its industry arm, the CineGouna Platform, it fosters the discovery of new talent, supports co-production, and strengthens artistic exchanges. The integration of the Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films into its program confirms the festival’s ambition to place criticism at the heart of cultural dialogue and make El Gouna a true crossroads of world cinema.

Neïla Driss