‘Madi Makambu,’ About Pregnancy Denial, Wins Final Cut’s La Biennale di Venezia Prize: ‘Truly Universal and Intense’ — SkimNews
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- "Madi Makambu" by Machérie Ekwa Bahango won five Final Cut awards, including the €10,000 La Biennale di Venezia Prize, for its story about two lovers forced to confront an unrecognized child after pregnancy denial.
- "Occupational Hazards" by Bassel Ghandour also took five awards; it follows a Palestinian family in Jerusalem who, per the director, "navigate everyday life under occupation and apartheid" through "wildly creative, mischievous" means.
- "Plague" by Youssef Chebbi won five awards, using Tunisia's real red palm weevil — introduced via palms imported for the ruling elite — as "a symbol of systemic corruption" spreading from the presidential palace outward.
- Final Cut received 83 works-in-progress submissions in its 14th edition, up from 78 last year and 52 in 2024, and for the first time selected an Ethiopian project ("Mehal Sefari" by Abraham Gezahagne).
- Sofia Djama's "A Quarter to Thursday" — a "politico-satirical fable" in which a woman seeks an abortion in a country "where presidents never die" — won awards from Titra Films and El Gouna Film Festival.
- Curator Alessandra Speciale said filmmakers are increasingly embracing "allegory, fantasy, the absurd and even myth" rather than strict realism to tackle political, social and environmental issues.
Why it matters: With submissions rising from 52 to 83 in three years and the first-ever Ethiopian project selected, Final Cut is expanding its pipeline across underrepresented cinemas at the precise post-production stage where independent films most often stall. The collective pivot toward allegory — a palm parasite standing in for corruption, a country where presidents never die standing in for authoritarianism — gives these politically charged stories a layer of indirection that may help them travel on the international festival circuit.
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