Now in its third year, San Sebastian's Cinema in Motion programme has selected Mahmoud Al Massad's Recycle, an insightful documentary that exposes the economic and political instability of Jordan, and Anne Marie Jacir's moving portrait of Palestine, Salt Of This Sea, as this year's winners.

The award helps film-makers from the Maghreb and Portuguese-speaking African countries to get their films completed.

Recycle will receive $21,000 from the National Cinematography Centre (CNC) to complete post-production; assistance from Mikros Image on the digital calibration; conversion from digital to 35mm provided by Swiss Effects and Kodak Suisse; subtitles in French and English provided by Titra Film; and one 35mm copy provided by the Fribourg festival, which also has its own Cinema In Motion sidebar.

'This award means a great deal to me,' Massad told ScreenDaily.com. 'It was a tough film to make, especially as the government is suspicious of film-makers in Jordan. But now I can improve the sound, finish the credits and sort out the colour correction.'

Palestinian film-maker Jacir's Salt Of This Sea, about an independent woman who returns to Palestine where her father was exiled in 1948, will receive $21,000 towards post-production from the MACTARI mixing auditorium in Paris; aid towards post-production from the Moroccan Cinematographic Centre (CCM), to be determined in agreement with the production; and one 35mm copy provided by the Amiens festival.

Jacir has already built up quite a reputation as an independent film-maker having had several of her features, including A Post-Oslo History, The Satelite Shooters and Like Twenty Impossibles, appear at major festivals including Cannes, Venice, Locarno and Berlin.

All four films that competed in Cinema in Motion, including Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas Lebanese drama Je Veux Voir and Leila Kilani's Nos Lieux Interdits from Morocco, will receive a total of $18,000 each toward Spanish subtitles by Casa Arabe, to help get the films seen in Spain and Latin America.

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