Final Cut award winners

Source: Venice Film Festival

Final Cut award winners

The Station (Al Mahattah), the debut feature of Yemeni-Scottish filmmaker Sara Ishaq, has won the top prize at the Final Cut awards for projects in post-production at the Venice Film Festival’s industry platform Venice Production Bridge.

The Station centres on Layal, who runs a women-only fuel station in a segregated war-torn town in Yemen, where she is faced with her 12-year-old brother’s growing desire to break free and become a ‘man’. When Layal’s estranged sister unexpectedly shows up with a proposition for their brother, the siblings’ relationship is put to the test.

The Station won the La Biennale di Venezia Prize for best film in post-production, which comes with a €5,000 award.

The producers are Jordan’s Screen Project and The Imaginarium Films, France’s Georges Films, Germany’s One Two Films, the Netherlands’ Keplerfilm and Norway’s Barentsfilm. Memento Films handles sales.

The Station came up through the 2020 Cannes L’Atelier and 2024 Venice Gap Financing Market, and wrapped production this summer.

Ishaq’s debut short film, Karama Has No Walls (2012), filmed during Yemen’s Arab Spring, was Oscar-nominated. She later directed the award-winning feature documentary The Mulberry House (2013), which premiered at IDFA.

The Final Cut jury was composed of the European Film Academy’s Fatih Abay, Kinology’s Nathalie Jeung and Maestro Distribution’s Claudio Rapino.

In a statement, they said: “This film demonstrates authentic gender empowerment, showing women as complex, capable individuals navigating their realities with agency and dignity. It challenges the typical Western gaze toward regions often reduced to simplistic narratives, instead revealing the full spectrum of human experience—the ingenuity, humor, strength, and hope that flourish even in challenging circumstances.”

The film also won a number of other in-kind post-production awards from Paris’s Titra Film, London’s Sub-Ti, and Turin’s Sub-Ti Access. Rai Cinema is offering € 5,000 for a first negotiation right for the acquisition of free TV rights in Italy.

Other winners in the Final Cut line-up included Angolan feature My Semba (Meu Semba) by Hugo Salvaterra, which won in-kind awards from Rome’s Laser Film, Ajaccio’s Studio A Fabrica, Paris’ Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut Français, and Festival International du Film de Fribourg.

The House Of The Wind (La Maison Du Vent) by Auguste Kouemo Yanghu, a Cameroon-Benin-France-Belgium co-production, won in-kind support from M74 and Mnemonica.

Let’s Play Soldiers (working title) by Mariam Al-Dhubhani, a Yemen-Qatar-Norway-France co-production, won prizes from MAD Solutions and El Gouna Film Festival.

Out Of School (La Cour Des Grands) by Hind Bensari, a Morocco-Denmark co-production, won prizes from the Red Sea Fund (Red Sea Film Foundation) and Festival International du Film d’Amiens.

Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep by Rakan Mayasi, a Belgium-Lebanon-Palestine co-production, won support from Oticons.

Standing At The Ruins (Al Woqoof Ala El Atlal) by Saeed Taji Farouky, an Egypt-UK co-production, was supported by Rome’s 196-MEDIA.

Legacy (Soleil, Lune, Étoiles) by Mamadou Dia, a Senegal-France co-production, was supported by Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

Topics