Carthage Film Festival 2025 Wraps With Egyptian, Nigerian and Tunisian Winners

Carthage Film Festival 2025

The 36th Carthage Film Festival (JCC) closed in Tunis as both a celebration and a reckoning, bringing together filmmakers, critics, policymakers and audiences from across Africa and the Arab world for ten days of premieres, debates, industry meetings and awards that reflected the region’s evolving cinematic identity. From packed screenings and late-night conversations in downtown Tunis to jury deliberations that rewarded emotional precision over spectacle, this year’s edition reaffirmed JCC’s role not just as a festival, but as a cultural barometer for African and Arab cinema.

At the centre of the closing night was Egypt’s The Stories, which claimed the Golden Tanit, Carthage’s highest honour. The film’s win signalled a clear curatorial stance: intimate storytelling, memory-driven narratives and emotional restraint remain powerful currencies on the continental circuit. Rather than leaning on scale or technical excess, the jury rewarded a film that trusted silence, character and interiority.

Nigeria emerged as one of the festival’s most talked-about presences. Akinola Davies Jr. secured the Silver Tanit for My Father’s Shadow, a debut feature praised for its assured direction and layered portrayal of family, masculinity and urban life. The film also received the Tahar Chériaa Prize for First Feature, cementing Davies as a filmmaker to watch and underscoring Nigeria’s growing influence within prestige festival spaces beyond commercial box office conversations.

Jordan’s Sink followed with the Bronze Tanit, earning recognition for its delicate engagement with mental health, domestic strain and emotional isolation. Its reception reflected a broader festival trend: stories grounded in psychological realism and social nuance resonated strongly with both jurors and audiences.

Tunisian cinema, meanwhile, held its ground on home soil. Where the Wind Comes From emerged as a clear audience favourite, winning both the Audience Award and Best Screenplay, while Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab received a special jury distinction alongside a Best Actress award for Saja Kilani. These wins reinforced Tunisia’s reputation as a hub for politically conscious, internationally fluent filmmaking.

Beyond the trophies, JCC 2025 functioned as a meeting place for conversations about funding gaps, co-productions, censorship, distribution and the future of African and Arab films in a fragmented global market. Documentary, short film and parallel sections showcased emerging voices experimenting with form, language and perspective, often blurring the line between the personal and the political.

As the festival looks ahead to its 60th anniversary, this edition felt less like a retrospective and more like a forward glance. Carthage did not present African and Arab cinema as “emerging” or “catching up,” but as self-aware, confident and actively defining its own standards. In 2025, JCC once again proved that the region’s most important cinematic conversations still find a home in Tunis.