Machérie Ekwa Bahango’s ‘Madi Makambu’ Leads Final Cut Winners

“Madi Makambu” by Machérie Ekwa Bahango won five Final Cut awards at the Venice Film Festival, including the coveted La Biennale di Venezia Prize.

Now in its 14^th edition, Final Cut supports films in post-production from all African countries and six countries in Middle East: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen. 

The story focuses on two lovers, Madi and Djino, forced to acknowledge Madi’s child after she experiences pregnancy denial.

“I chose to tackle pregnancy denial because, beyond the realities of my own society, I wanted to explore something truly universal and intense,” the director told Variety. 

CL1 D’oeil Studio and Boucan Films produce. 

“Admittedly, there are films that have already tackled this theme, but pregnancy denial remains a little-known and fairly rare phenomenon. However, the aim was not to tell a unique story; the most important thing was to find a perspective that was distinctive enough to allow me to make the subject my own and render it authentically.”

Her characters live without “ever knowing or being able to predict what their next move will be.” 

“Surprise after surprise, just like in pregnancy denial, they embrace life’s blows with such resilience. The film’s unpredictability allows it to shift from one subject to another, and without losing focus, these elements come together to form a single narrative. Ultimately, pregnancy denial is merely the trigger that sets the story alight, allowing it to unfold and tell its own tale.”

Another big winner was “Occupational Hazards” by Bassel Ghandour, which picked up five awards. It follows a Palestinian family in Jerusalem. 

“They navigate everyday life under occupation and apartheid, specifically exploring the absurdity of the situation, and more importantly, the wildly creative, mischievous, and ingenious ways Palestinians navigate daily life there,” said Ghandour. 

“It is inspired by an amalgam of real-life accounts and on the ground research, which we’ve undertaken for years. Ultimately this is a darkly humorous tale of resilience and defiance, told through this family’s journey as they try and keep their home from crumbling, literally and figuratively.” 

The Imaginarium Films produces, with Tough Crowd, Cocoon Films and Metafora Productions co-producing.

Youssef Chebbi’s “Plague” also won five awards. Sold by The Party Film Sales, it’s produced by Supernova films, Blast Films and Portobisso.

“I hadn’t returned to Tozeur since my grandfather’s funeral in 2000. But in 2019, a music project brought me back: I found a tired, almost abandoned town. That’s when I met two twin brothers working in a family palm grove,” said the director, also mentioning the story’s villain: the red palm weevil, a parasite that appeared after the fall of the dictatorship. 

“Introduced through imported palms ordered for those in power, it spread from the presidential palace to the heart of the country – a symbol of systemic corruption.” 

Sofia Djama (“The Blessed”) presented “A Quarter to Thursday,” awarded by Titra Films and El Gouna Film Festival. In the film, in a country where presidents never die, a woman finds herself unexpectedly pregnant and determined to abort.

“My film is a tale or a kind of politico-satirical fable. For it to work, I invented an imaginary city where you’d lose yourself, both geographically and temporally. Where there is no South, North, East or West, only this good sea, this azure-blue basin, with its turbulent shores,” she said. 

Her story tries to unite us “through an imaginary geography that welcomes humor, friendship and hope.” 

It’s produced by Tessalit Productions, co-produced by FuryoFilms, Artemis Productions and Zoudj Doro Production, and sold by The Bureau Sales.

“It’s a satire that points to authoritarianism, nationalist withdrawal, the rise of every kind of fascism that no longer even spares the old democracies of Europe, ideologies that have nothing to envy in Islamism – where, despite everything, the dreamlike invites itself in at every moment to break or sublimate the harshness of reality,” added Djama.

She will combine animated sequences created by Mehdi Bardi with live-action footage that “materializes this dreamlike quality, offering a poetic escape and an imagery proper to fairy tales.”

Abraham Gezahagne’s “Mehal Sefari” also took home two awards, and Alaa Eddine Aljem’s “Eldorado, The Taste of the South” one award.

In the first, produced by Gobez Media Inc. and Abricom Multimedia – with Barents Film, 2Pilots and New Amsterdam also attached – a politically apathetic ambulance driver collects bodies from the streets of Ethiopia’s capital during a mass killing in 1977. He’s forced to choose a side when he finds his son’s body.

“This film is really special because it goes straight to the core beliefs of centrists who doesn’t really take action or intervene when it comes to crimes against humanity,” said Gezahagne. 

“In today’s global politics, it seems like everyone’s side-stepping when it comes to injustices targeted at the vulnerable. This story serves as a wake-up call, showing that these issues will eventually catch up with all of us. And when that happens, everyone stands to lose. As the Ethiopian proverb says, those who try to stay in the middle will end up getting hit by two bullets.”

According to Gezahagne, the past is like a mirror reflecting the future. 

“In my country, history has a tendency to repeat itself as if we’re stuck in a never-ending loop. Stories like this can spark meaningful dialogues and give a heads-up to political stakeholders, prompting them to plan for the future more carefully.”

In “Eldorado, The Taste of the South,” a group of migrants seeks to reach a secret utopian island where everyone lives in peace – and eventually ends up in a factory of the same name that produces tomato sauce.

The film is produced by Le Moindre Geste, with Haut Les Mains Productions, Dugong Films, Jacaranda Productions and Duo Film co-producing. Best Friends Forever handles sales. 

Alessandra Speciale, curator of Final Cut, said: “This year, we received 83 works in progress, compared with 78 last year and 52 in 2024, so the program has clearly become well-known across the regions we work with.”

“We are increasingly receiving films from countries whose cinemas, until recently, were much less visible internationally. This year, for instance, for the first time in 14 editions we selected an Ethiopian project. At the same time, we continue to see great vitality both in sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, often despite extremely fragile production conditions.”

This year, several projects moved away from a strictly realistic approach, embracing allegory, fantasy, the absurd and even myth. 

“They often start from very concrete political, social or environmental issues, but look for less predictable cinematic forms through which to explore them. ‘Plague,’ for example, begins with very real elements rooted in contemporary Tunisia but gradually moves toward the fantastic and the mythical. ‘Eldorado’ approaches migration as a kind of contemporary parable, using a very distinctive sense of humor,” observed Speciale.

“What surprised me most this year is that reality remains at the heart of these films, but filmmakers seem to feel less and less compelled to represent it in purely realistic terms.”

After 14 editions, the goal remains the same: “to act as a springboard for independent films at a particularly delicate stage, which is post-production.” 

“We want to provide not only concrete support through our awards, but also a first international exposure to an audience of festival programmers, distributors and sales agents.

“Looking ahead, we would like to continue expanding this network and reaching filmmakers and cinemas that still have very limited access to the international market,” she said. 

“Our ambition is not simply to become bigger, but to continue discovering films and filmmakers with a strong cinematic identity, particularly first and second features, and to support them at a moment when this support can really make a difference.”

“For us, seeing these films find their place in the international landscape is probably the most important measure of the program’s success.”

Here’s the full list of awards:

“Madi Makambu” by Machérie Ekwa Bahango (Congo DR, France, Belgium)

La Biennale di Venezia Prize (€ 10,000) 

Oticons is offering tailored film music services to one of the films, in the form of either music consulting, and/or music supervision and/or the production of an original score by one of its represented film composers. These services, valued at up to €10,000, will encompass all relevant processes, such as spotting sessions, composition, mock-ups and final production (for original score), or expert support in music licensing and supervision (if applicable).

MAD Solutions is offering for a feature-length fiction film, a MG of minimum $10,000, or for a feature-length documentary film, a MG of minimum $3,000 in marketing, advertising and distribution worldwide, for an Arabic project (with the exception of projects already under MAD Solutions’ responsibility).

Mnemonica is providing full access to its secure cloud-based platform to manage, preserve, share and distributing the digital assets of the winning film, to a value of €10,000.

Red Sea Fund (Red Sea Film Foundation) is offering €5,000.

“Occupational Hazards” by Bassel Ghandour (Jordan, Qatar, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Palestine)

Studio A Fabrica (Ajaccio) is offering €15,000 for the sound mixing of a feature length film (up to 12 days of work, sound mixer not included).

Sub-Ti Ltd (London) is offering up to €7,500 for the creation of the DCP master with Italian or English subtitles.

Sub-Ti Access Srl (Turin) is offering up to €7,500 for the accessible contents of the film for audiences with sensory disabilities: subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impaired and audio description for the blind and visually impaired, including audio subtitles in voiceover, in Italian or English (the subtitles and the audio-described soundtrack for the DCP will be provided).

Rai Cinema is offering €5,000 for a first negotiation right for the acquisition of Free TV exploitation rights in the Italian territory and obligation to mention “in collaboration with Rai Cinema S.p.a.” in the credits of the work.

M74 srl (Rome) is offering up to €10,000 for digital visual effects “2D Comp”

“Plague” by Youssef Chebbi (Tunisia, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia)

Laser Film (Rome) is offering €15,000 for the color correction of a feature-length film for up to 50 hours of work (technician included).

The Festival International du Film d’Amiens is offering its participation in the production costs of a DCP (€2,500).

“A Quarter to Thursday” by Sofia Djama (France, Belgium, Algeria)

Titra Film (Paris) is offering up to €5,000 for color-grading; up to €3,000 for the production of a DCP master, or the creation of iTunes, Google or Netflix files; up to €2,000 for French or English subtitles (translation not included).

El Gouna Film Festival is awarding $5,000 to an Arab project offered and an invitation to participate in the industry platform CineGouna

“Mehal Sefari” by Abraham Gezahagne (Ethiopia, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia)

The Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institute Français (Paris) awards the Coup de cœur de la Cinémathèque Afrique Prize. The prize consists in the acquisition of the non-commercial and non-exclusive broadcasting rights for five years for a value of €4,000 – €6,000 depending on the genre and length of the film and the number of available territories.

The Festival International du Film de Fribourg is offering its participation in the production costs of a DCP (€2,500).

“Eldorado, The Taste of the South” by Alaa Eddine Aljem (Morocco, France, Italy, Norway)

The Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie is offering €5,000 as a refund for post-production services, delivered by companies based in one of the countries eligible to the OIF Supporting Fund – of a feature-length film directed by a filmmaker from one of the OIF Supporting Fund countries and produced or co-produced by a company based in one of the OIF Supporting Fund countries.