The 13th Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth concluded with Paul Negoescu’s Romanian-Bulgarian coming-of-age drama ‘Atlas of the Universe’ winning best feature film. Celia Catunda’s Brazilian animation ‘My Grandfather Is a Nihonjin’ received the award for best animated feature.

The jury called ‘Atlas of the Universe’—about a 10-year-old boy whose trip to buy school shoes becomes a step toward independence—“the essence of this festival.” ‘My Grandfather Is a Nihonjin’ follows a Japanese-Brazilian boy as he explores his family history and cultural identity, with the jury recognizing its treatment of tradition and the challenges of beginning a new life in another country.

Areej Alghamdi’s Saudi documentary ‘The Path of Memory, Between the Lands of Jasmine and Basil’ won best documentary. The film examines cultural memory and heritage through a young girl and her mother. Abdulrahman Al Madani’s Emirati short ‘Oug’ took best Arabic short, while ‘Little Big Dreams,’ by Shweta Parakh and Rakesh E Nair, won best international short. The film centers on a wheelchair-using girl in Ladakh who wants to pursue her education and be viewed with pride rather than pity.

Thai feature ‘Gohan,’ directed by Chayanop Bunprakob, Baz Poonpiriya and Atta Hemwadee, received the festival’s inaugural Audience Award. The story follows a stray dog through the lives of three owners over more than a decade, and it also earned a special mention from the feature film jury. Other awards went to South Korea’s ‘The Monster’ for best child and youth-made film, ‘Raeda’ for best student-made short, ‘Fellow’ for best student short animation and ‘The Great Dreamscape’ for best animation short. Saudi documentary ‘Marjooj’ received a special mention.

The festival screened 71 films from 38 countries, selected from 1,802 submissions from 72 countries. Italy served as Country of Honor.

This year’s edition placed particular emphasis on participation, industry development and regional exchange. The Junior Jurors program allowed young participants to serve on festival juries, while Festival Ambassadors gained experience representing and covering the event. Through its Industry Hub, SIFF also connected emerging filmmakers with established professionals through panels, workshops and other activities.

The festival’s second pitching platform selected six projects, twice as many as in 2025. Instead of offering a cash prize, the initiative connects filmmakers with potential partners for financing, production support, post-production and international collaboration. One project, Khalid Al Mahmoud’s ‘The Mangrove House,’ was pitched in 2025 while seeking post-production support. FANN – Media Discovery Platform later backed the film, which returned to SIFF this year for its world premiere and opened the festival.

SIFF also used its youth programs to encourage connections across the region. Egyptian actors Ali Beialy and Retal Abdelaziz, aged 12 and 15, respectively, joined the festival as junior jurors. They participated in jury activities, introduced films and covered events. The pitching platform featured projects from the UAE, Oman and the Palestinian diaspora in the United States, while the competition included a dedicated Arabic short-film section.

The festival’s two Emirati competition entries, ‘The Mangrove House’ and ‘Oug,’ also highlighted ongoing concerns over financing, production support, distribution and audience access for local filmmakers. During the event, FANN signed a memorandum of understanding with the UAE’s National Media Authority covering screening procedures, media coordination, regulatory processes, training and technical support. The federal body also became an official supporting partner of SIFF.

For the first time, audiences were able to vote directly for a festival prize. Viewers rated films by scanning a QR code after each screening, and ‘Gohan,’ which had its Middle East premiere as a Green Carpet screening, won the inaugural Audience Award.

Sources: Variety.