Straight to the Goal film wins the iproduction award for the development in cinagouna platform ✽

The film tells the story of a boy (Ali) who follows his passion for soccer all the way to Marseille but after a serious injury Ali was forced to find a job to support his family. Unluckily he discovered the underground life of the illegal immigrant business to find himself prepared for the drug business which got him into a completely un-planned journey.

Further big winners included Egyptian director Tamer Ashry’s feature drama Straight To The Goal, which one five awards worth more than $40,000 in total.

The drama was presented in the in-development category and revolves around an Egyptian teenager heads to Marseille, with dreams of building a football career in Europe who then falls into a life of crime after he is injured and abandoned by his coach.

It will be Ashry’s second fiction feature after his 2017 award-winning drama Photocopy and a number of shorts.

The project took the $10,000 iProduction prize, $10,000 Ergo Media Ventures prize, the $5,000 Waraq powered by Magic Beans prize

Ashry also won a place on the seven-day Film Independent Spirit Awards Residency in Los Angeles, sponsored by Film Independent and the US embassy, as well as unlimited location shooting services from Dakhli West El Balad

The film directed by: Tamer Ashry
Written by: Tamer Ashry & Jamal Belhmahi
Unit production management: Moustafa Salah (BEE Media)

Tamer Ashry is a director, producer, and writer with 15 years of experience working in film and television and commercials in the Middle East. His first narrative feature, Photocopy, has been screened internationally and won numerous awards including best feature at El-Gouna, best feature at Tripoli-Lebanon, and the audience award for best film at Malmö. Photocopy portrays an elderly man pursuing an unconventional romance in contemporary Cairo. Tamer’s short film, Eyebrows, about two Niqab-clad women in a shopping-mall, recently won best short at El-Gouna. Ashry has directed a number of documentaries (Pictures from Gaza, The 7th War, A Decent Living, and Neighbors of the Morgue) which have been featured on PBS, BBC, and Al-Jazeera as well as human rights campaigns for the UN that have gone viral. He also directed work for Emmy and Oscar-winning filmmakers Gini Reticker (Trials of Spring), and Thomas Lennon (Sacred). He was the recipient of the 2017 Meditalents Fellowship for Scripted Development. He is drawn to projects that balance poignancy and humor, and through his work, seeks to inspire viewers with compassion for our shared humanity.

Moustafa Salah is one of the leading production managers in Egypt, and has worked on some of

the largest feature fiction films in Egypt, including Clash (nominated at Cannes), and The

Renegade Arrows. He is the co-founder and COO of BEE Media Productions. His commercial

clients include Vodafone, Lipton, Danone, Orange, Unilever and the UN. He recently co-produced

Eyebrows, a short fiction film that won Best Arab Short at El-Gouna Film Festival 2018.

BEE Media is one of the leading production companies in Egypt and the wider MENA region. Founded in 2008 by Director Tamer Ashry and Producer Moustafa Salah, BEE has gained a

reputation for being creative and professional. The Bees run a full-fledged production company,

providing the standard range of services from Pre- to Post-Production. They specialize in largescale production of commercials, documentaries, reality TV, and feature fiction films, and are

deeply passionate about local content development. They regularly produce content for the

BBC, Al Jazeera, and national channels, and their clients include JWT, Leo Burnett, Vodafone,

Unilever and UN organizations. www.beemediaproductions.com