Diana El Jeiroudi and Orwa Nyrabia honoured with Katrin Cartlidge Award

The Syrian film-maker and producer run DOX BOX, the largest documentary festival in Arab world and were awarded the European Documentary Award 2012.

Jeremy Irons arrived in Sarajevo on Friday (13) to present the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Award to Syrian film-maker Diana El Jeiroudi and producer Orwa Nyrabia.

 “We are honoured to receive the Katrin Cartlidge Award in Sarajevo, the city that gives us great hope at such a dark moment in Syrian history,” said El Jeiroudi and Nyrabia at the award ceremony. “We understand that the award is a tribute to all brave Syrian filmmakers, working in extreme danger to express the Syrian people’s agony, to tell the world about the atrocities of dictatorship, the lessons not learned and the great power of art as a form of freedom.”

In 2002 El Jeiroudi and Nyrabia started Proaction Film, today the only independent documentary film outfit operating in Syria. Their debut feature Dolls - A Woman From Damascus premiered at IDFA in 2007 and screened at over 30 international festivals.

In early 2008, they launched the Independent Documentary Film Festival DOX BOX in Syria, which quickly became the largest and most significant documentary film festival in the Arab region, also developing 30 Arab regional documentary films at the DOX BOX CAMPUS every year. 

Last year, in protest against the killings in Syria and as a clear stand against the Syrian ruling regime, they decided not to hold the fifth edition of the festival and instead initiated a Global Day for Syria, screening Syrian documentaries in 38 cities around the world on March 15th, the first anniversary of the Syrian revolution.

On behalf of DOX BOX team, El Jeiroudi and Nyrabia were awarded the European Documentary Award 2012 for their outstanding contribution to the art of documentary.

The Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Award is an annual bursary which rewards the independence, singularity and integrity of spirit that the British acrtess Katrin Cartlidge powerfully embraced and exemplified in her own lifetime. Cartlidge, who died in 2002, was a great supporter and friend of the Sarajevo Film Festival.