Palestinian drama Happy Holidays wins Golden Star at Marrakech Film Festival

By Pascale Mahe Keingna & Bruno Maggiore

*Happy Holidays, *directed by Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti, has won the coveted Golden Star, the top prize at the Marrakech International Film Festival.  

The family drama tells the story of four people whose destinies intertwine.

Copti's film was also victorious in the acting category as two women impressed the jury with their performances. Wafaa Aoun and Manar Shehab shared the prize for Best Actress Performance for their portrayal of a mother and daughter.

Roman Lutsky won the Best Actor prize for his role in Damian Kocur's film **‘**Under The Volcano’. Kocur was also awarded the prize for Best Direction. 

The jury also made another exception to the rule by awarding two Jury Prizes instead of one. The first award went to Silvina Schnicer's feature film The Cottage and the second to Mo Harawe, a Somali director who participated in last year's Atlas Workshops, for his debut feature The Village Next to Paradise, a film screened at Cannes' Un Certain Regard selection earlier this year.

The entire festival was structured around a number of programmes, including the very recent ‘Conversations’ with renowned directors, as well as tributes to Naïma Elmcherqui, David Cronenberg and Sean Penn, and the Atlas Workshops, which encourage directors to develop their films in progress during a week of workshops with more than 300 film industry professionals.