Merzak Allouache’s Normal was named Best Arab Narrative Feature, Morgan Spurlock’s Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope won the documentary audience award at the festival, which closed Saturday night.

Nadine Labaki’s Where Do We Go Now? has won the audience (fiction) award at the third Doha Tribeca Film Festival. It is the Lebanese director’s second feature following her critically acclaimed debut Caramel. It has been chosen as this year’s Lebanese foreign language Oscar submission.

Morgan Spurlock’s Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope picked the audience documentary award.

Merzak Allouache’s Normal was named the best narrative film in the Arab Film Competition.The best documentary award in the Arab Film Competition went to Namir Abdel Messeeh’s The Virgin, The Copts And Me. The documentary jury was headed up by British film-maker Nick Broomfield.

Algerian film Normal focuses on a group of actors during the Arab Spring. The Virgin, The Copts and Me sees French/Egyptian film-maker travelling to Egypt to investigate apparitions of the Virgin Mary.

Both awards carry $100,000 cash prizes. Thie Arab Film Competition was extended this year to 14 features and documentaries.

Meanwhile Rania Stephan, director of The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni, and Roschdy Zem, director of Omar Killed Me took the $50,000 prizes for Best Documentary and Best Narrative Director.

Omar Killed Me also took picked up the prize for Best Performance by Sami Bouajila.

The Best Arab Short Film award went to Where Are You? by Abdulaziz Al-Nujaym who won $10,000, with an honorable mention being given to Ahmad Ghossein’s My Father Is Still a Communist – Intimate Secrets To Be Published. Ghossein will receive $10, 000 in Development Services from the Doha Film Institute (DFI)

Amanda Palmer, executive director of DFI, said: “There are so many prestigious filmmakers here, and the reason we have the festival is to discover new talent. We hope these talented people meet each other here and are able to make films together as a result.”

Jury president of the Arab Narrative Film Competition Mohammed Malas described the Doha Film Festival as “one of the best festivals to raise the profile of youth cinema, which will create our future.’

The festival, now in its 3rd year, closed tonight with Luc Besson’s The Lady followed by a performance by popstar Leona Lewis.

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