Adham Center Student Awards in Five Years
Over the past five years, students of the MA program in television and digital journalism received more than 27 local and international awards from prestigious competitions. This harvest is a new record of excellence for the Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism
International Awards:
- 6 in 2022
- 6 in 2021
- 5 in 2020
- 9 in 2019
- 2 in 2018
In February 2022, six Adham Center graduates won in the BEA’s Festival of Media Arts international competition as follows:
- Marina Michel won First Place in the Documentary Category for her film “Hallawela”.
- Lara Magdy won First place in the Television News Category for her film “Besha’a”.
- Marina Michel won Third Place in the Micro-Documentary Category for her film “One Step”.
- Chima Mamdouh won an Award of Excellence in the Short-Form Documentary Category for her film “Heba Wagdy-Osteogenesis Imperfecta”.
- Mira Maged won an Award of Excellence in the Short-Form Documentary Category for her film “Dronka Guradians”.
- Nada Shaker won an Award of Excellence in the Short-Form Documentary Category for her film “Woman of El Izba”.
In October 2021, Adham Center alumna, Dania ElMor, MA’20 won the FIRST place award in the Best Student Film category of UK’s annual Women Over Fifty Film Festival (WOFFF). Women Over 50 Film Festival. The judges have said, in part, of Elmor’s film,
“What a wonderful film. I have never had a window into someone's world quite like this one.”
ElMor is the first Egyptian filmmaker to win at the WOFFF in the seven years the festival has been in existence. ElMor’s story was part of her capstone course in the MA in Television and Digital Journalism, under the supervision of Hussein Amin, Director of the Adham Center and capstone advisor.
ElMor’s film was screened in the award ceremony hosted on October 2, at the Depot Cinema, along with other award winners announced during the event. Due to travel restrictions, ElMor was not able to travel to receive her award, but she attended the ceremony virtually.
TVDJ MA capstone film titled "The Egyptian South Pole" produced by Adham Center alumna, Sherehan Khaled Elazazy,'19, was selected one of the top 5 films across all categories of the Zayed University Middle East Film Festival (ZUMEFF) 2020 and 2021 editions. In total, over 2,000 films were submitted from 106 different countries from all over the world. El Azazy's was voted and selected among the top 5. The top films were virtually screened on ZUMEFF's first day on November 16, 2021.
Adham Center graduate student, Dalia ElAkkad,'21, had her film "Waterfalls Birds" selected for an Honorable Mention to the Twelfth Annual Cinema Verde International Environmental Film and Arts Festival. Through her project, ElAkkad went on a Nile cruise to discover the waterfalls world and their islands, full of exotic bird species. Cinema Verde, an Environmental Film and Arts Festival in Gainesville, Florida, was created to raise awareness of environmental issues through the arts. The Festival will hold its thirteenth annual event in February 2022. Cinema Verde’s mission is to provide environmental education to the public through film, arts, workshops, events, tours and any other forum or media; to increase public awareness of environmental practices that enhance public health and improve quality of life in urban, suburban and rural settings.
The festival reaches more than 3,000 participants with screenings of an international array of 25+ professional films plus student submissions at the annual festival and monthly events.
In December 2021, and as part of the National Council for Women (NCW) and the Supreme Advisory Council for Afro-Asian Union for Women's activities for the annual international campaign referred to as "16 days of activism against gender-based violence", launched by UN Women in 1991, both councils held student competitions to encourage students to produce more films, documentaries and research papers that address women's issues locally and globally, and our students have won in both competitions for their outstanding video productions on topics that empower women and that tackle different women roles in the society.
In the Afro-Asian Union for Women competition, Khaled Amgad, Amira Ehab Dakroury, and Chima Kamal have won for their films: "Evil Messages- رسائل شريرة", "Mental Pressure from Cyber bullying - الضغط النفسي الناتج عن التنمر الإلكتروني", "Bullying is not a Joke- التنمر مش ضحكة", and "Circumcision Restoration - ترميم الختان"
In The National Council for Women's competition, Marina M. Fares, and Menna Ali Farouk have won for their films: "Taghreed the Youngest Fishwife-تغريد بائعة السمك", and "Bakery of a Woman - مخبز الست"
In June 2021, Adham Center alumna, Sarah Zakariya Gheitah, MA’20, won first place in the documentary film category of Visions Cairo Egyptian Short Film Festival, for her film ‘The Journey’. Sarah’s film was among 50 documentary submissions from all over Egypt, and among a total 123 festival submissions. Other Adham Center alumni projects were selected for screening at Visions Cairo Egyptian Short Film Festival. A total of 15 student stories were selected; 9 for panorama screening by the Festival, and 6 have been nominated for awards.
Three Adham Center graduates have won at the Broadcast Education Association's (BEA) Festival of Media Arts 2021, and five have won in the 2020 festival.
2021:
Assem Khaled has won an Award of Excellence in the Student Micro-Documentary category for his story "Desert Rain."
Sarah Sadek has won an Award of Excellence in the Short-Form Documentary category for her story "Cheerful Child."
Nouran Nour has won 1st place in the Television News category for her feature "The Tale behind Egyptian Brick."
All these stories were part of the master students' capstone projects supervised by Hussein Amin.
2020:
In the Film and Video Category: Sherehan Khaled Elazazy won 1st Place for her story Egyptian South Pole.
In the Micro Documentary Category: Dania Elmor won 2nd place for her story Dorgham’s Son; Layla Umara won Award of Excellence for her story A Craft in Color; Maha El-Rayes won Award of Excellence for her story Siwa … Heaven of Recovery.
In the Short Film Documentary Category: Hussein El Moataz won an Award of Excellence for his story The People of Gold.
All these stories were part of the master students' capstone projects supervised by Hussein Amin, Director of the Adham Center.
The prestigious BEA is one of the top three international conferences in the field of media and communication. The student wins were among more than 1,700 submissions from all around the world in the different festival categories. The BEA and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Exhibition are typically held in April of every year in Las Vegas Convention Center, Nevada, the United States. This year, and the year before, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, the winners received their awards virtually.
Adham Center alumna, Dania Elmor, MA’19, has won Best Graduation Project and Practical Research award from The National Council for Women (NCW), Media Committee competition. Elmor’s story titled, “Fishing Net” or “El Habbasa” portrays a woman’s struggle, Om el Sayed, in fishing every day in the middle of the night using her bare hands, in order to make a living for herself and her family.
El Habbasa was screened as part of NCW’s virtual event to celebrate the competition winners.
Dania’s film was also selected in the top three films in the Women Over 50 Film Festival. has been selected to screen at the Women Over 50 Film Festival (WOFFF). Elmor’s film has been awarded a prize in the Best Student category – in 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. The Festival is keeping the exact position of her film a surprise to be revealed with other prize winners at our Awards Ceremony at Depot on Saturday 2nd October. The judges have said, in part, of Miss Elmor’s film, “What a wonderful film. I have never had a window into someone's world quite like this one.” ElMor is the first Egyptian filmmaker to attend WOFFF in the 7 years the festival has been in existence. ElMor’s story was part of her capstone course in the MA in Television and Digital Journalism, under the supervision of Hussein Amin, Director of the Adham Center and capstone advisor.
In April 2019, the Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism, for the second time in a row, has had an outstanding presence at the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) accepted around 1,500 productions from all over the world. Two of the Center’s graduate students, Ahmed Atef Abbas and Aya Saleh, won at the BEA’s International Festival of Media Arts competition and were among a total of 295 winners this year. Abbas won 3rd place in the Television Feature Category for his story titled "Blue Hole: Divers' Paradise Cemetery." He also won an award of excellence in the Short Form Video or Film Documentary category for his story titled, "El Shayya." As for Saleh, she won an award of excellence in the Short Form Video or Film Documentary category for her story titled “Catherine Exists.” The graduates' documentaries were part of their capstone work for their MA in Television and Digital Journalism.
Ahmed Atef and Aya Saleh also won Best of Competition Awards in the student documentary competition of the World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) Festival held in Paris in July 2019, for their short documentaries titled “El shayyah” and “Catherine exists.” Adham Center graduate students, Heba Saleh and Maram Shalaby, won two awards of excellence for their films “The Ferry” and “Breaking Walls” in the student news competition category. Shalaby also won another award of excellence in the student documentary competition for her short film “On the Corniche.” These awards were out of a total of 100 entries in the festival. The student wins were among 11% for best of competition and 49% for award of excellence.
Moreover, Zayed University Middle East Film Festival (ZUMEFF) held in Dubai in April 2019 presented Nada Atta with an “honorable mention – documentary” award for her short film “The Coffee Shop.” The festival originally accepted 60 contestants from the Middle East; only 10 were awarded. Along with the award, Atta received 2,000 AED as part of Nada’s award for her distinguished work.