The film Wadjda by director Haifaa Al Mansour won as Best Film at the 9th Dubai International Film Festival (9-16 December 2012). Young Waad Mohammed won as Best Actress for her role in the film, that had its world premiere earlier this year at the 69th Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti section.

The first full-length feature ever filmed entirely inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Wadjda is the story of a 10-year-old girl who wants a beautiful green bycicle desperately so that she can beat her friend Abdullah in a race. But Wadjda's mother won't allow it, seeing bycicles as dangerous to a girl's virtue.

Furthermore, Egyptian actor Amr Waked won as Best Actor in the film Winter of Discontent (El sheita elli fat) by director Ibrahim El Batout. This film too had its world premiere at the 69th Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti section.

Set during the days of Tahrir Square and the Egyptian Revolution, the film portrays three characters (Amr, a 35-year-old man who designs software, Farah, a woman in her early 30's and a news anchor on Egyptian television, and Adel, a man in his 40's and an officer in the State Security apparatus) who are each taken on a journey during those tragic events that are going to change their life and their country forever.