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Omani filmmaker bags award at international film festival

10 Dec 2022 By ANIRBAN RAY

Muscat – Omani documentary filmmaker Mohammad Darwish bagged the Jury Award at the prestigious Arab-African International Documentary Festival (Algeria) recently.

The 12-minute short film named Beta-Carotene speaks about various types of water found in the wadis and ocean around the country. This is the first time ever that an Omani film bagged this award at the popular festival, held from November 22 to 26 with the participation of over 23 films from the region.

“I am very happy to win this award. Documentaries speak of a narrative that is direct and factual. They are based on deep research and truth; we cannot afford to fictionalise anything,” Darwish said.

“I had been researching on the topic for a long time and was amazed to see the different colours of water in Oman because of its environment and properties. I realised that this unique feature – which is indeed a blend of chemistry, geography and culture – needs to be told to the world and thus my team began our creation.”

The team comprised of ten technicians including cinematographers, videographers for aerial shots, editors and colourists. The film was shot with cine camera and edited with Adobe Première Pro and DaVinci Resolve. All the members are based in Oman.

The director travelled the length and breadth of the country for his shooting and was amazed to see the various colours of the water like red, blue, yellow and gold. It took nine months for the shooting and post production to complete, he added.

Darwish will now be travelling to several other international film festivals in the region including Morocco and Egypt. The film also got recognition from Japan and other countries in Europe.

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