The Arabian Cinema Awards concluded on Friday night, March 25th with a glittering award ceremony that honored the finest acting and cinematic talent from the Arab world.

The night was all about big budgets, A-list excellence in acting, directing, cinematography, editing, costume design, hair/ makeup/styling, music and script writing in addition to the life achievement award.

Judging is not an easy process, especially in art, where creativity is defined by the artists’ personal discretions and considerations.

But it becomes immensely difficult, and I believe very pleasing, when the quality of films selected is outstanding, and this is the ultimate reason why the ACA proved to be a great success, and the whole process felt ever-so rewarding...

The ACA is an up and coming annual Arab award ceremony hosted by the Academy to recognize excellence in cinematic achievements within the film industry as assessed by the 200 member Academy’s voting members. This year there were 17 various category winners whom were awarded a copy of a statuette, officially called the Award of Merit, which will become commonly known by its nickname the “Arab Oscar”.

Cairo was getting ready for its most glittering night of the year as we found out who got their hands on those golden statues -- the jewel in the crown of award season, the ACA 2016. The ACA was initiated by Dear Guest Co., with the aim of honoring the 2015 greatest cinema achievements as determined by the Arab’s most accomplished motion picture artists and professionals, where the ACA members voted for the ACA public award using a ready-made questionnaire. It was another high caliber year for movie making and as ever, it was hard to predict which way the Academy would swing when it came to handing out the gold. When it comes to ballots and keeping the results under wraps, those behind the ACA decided and agreed to stick to old-school methods. Humans aren’t great at keeping secrets. So how can we assure that nobody ever knew the results in advance? Because the academy is understandably wary of tell-tales. When it came to ballots, it is decidedly old school.

First of all, the Academy, which had almost 200 voting members, never saw all the ballots, the ballots were printed out and the whole mess was counted by hand behind closed doors at a top-secret site. In turn, the team kept them confined, and the 17 categories were divided up so only two of those people got a picture of the full results. In an effort to maintain a high degree of fairness and transparency in the voting process -- It was the Academy’s goal to ensure that the awards competition was conducted in a fair and ethical manner. The Academy refined the rules in an effort to keep the campaigning fair and maintain the integrity of the industry’s highest honor. The ballots and the guild awards were in, and there’s no more campaigning left to do for the 2016 ACAwards. So here, the nominations have finally been revealed for the ACAwards, and as ever, the best picture category represents a fascinating snapshot of both the industry and the here and now.

Thank you to all who attended the Arabian Cinema Awards and made it a huge success. Well done to all the nominees and congratulations to the award winners... Check the THE ACA GOES TO:

• Life Achievement Award: Yousra
• Best Actor in a Leading Role: Nour El Sherif “B tawkeet El
Qahera”
• Best Actress in a Leading Role: Mona Zaki “Aswar El Amar”
• Best Director: Tarek El Erian “Welad Rizk”
• Best Film: “Welad Rizk”
• Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Ahmed El Fishawy “Welad Rizk”
• Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Amina Khalil “Sokkar Mor”
• Editing: Ahmed Hafez “Sokkar Mor”
• Make up: Tarek Mostafa “Khareg El Khedma”
• Hair Styling: Sayed Abdel Ghani “Sokkar Mor”
• Art Director: Onsi Abo Seif “Quduraat Ghier Adeya”
• Visual Effects: Tarek Refaat & Aroma Company “Aswar El Amar”
• Cinematography: Mazen Al Motagawel “Welad Rizk”
• Sound Editing: Salma El Barouni “Quduraat Ghier Adeya”
• Sound Mixing: Gomaa Abdel Latif “Quduraat Ghier Adeya”
• Script: Dawood Abdel Sayed “Quduraat Ghier Adeya”
• Costume Design: Riham Assem “Welad Rizk”
• Music Score: Hesham Nazih “Aswar El Amar”
• Song: “Tasaheel” Asala & Basata band “Welad Rizk”