Dirty Difficult Dangerous wins Europa Cinemas Venice Label

French/Lebanese director Wissam Charaf’s Dirty Difficult Dangerous has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European Film in the Giornate degli Autori. 2022 marks the nineteenth time the Label has been awarded in Venice.

In receiving the Label, Dirty Difficult Dangerous will benefit from promotional support from Europa Cinemas and better exhibition thanks to a financial incentive for network cinemas to include it in their programming schedule.

The Jury consisted of: Michèle Creemers (Cinecenter, Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Marco Fortunato (Cinemazero, Pordenone, Italy); Hristo Hristozov (Dom na Kinoto, Sofia, Bulgaria) and Zacharias Ioannidis – Varvaressos (Cine Paradisos, Korydallos, Greece).

The jury issued the following statement:
“Wissam Charaf’s Dirty Difficult Dangerous is a delight – a very original and surprisingly uplifting film, and our unanimous choice as the winner of the Europa Cinemas Label here in Venice.  Yes it deals with many of the tragic issues that confront us all – war, refugees, trafficking – but Charaf comes up with a love story that even has strong fairy tale elements. Set in Beirut and on the Lebanese/Syrian border, we follow the heartening relationship between an Ethiopian girl and a Syrian man. There is a lightness of touch here – a pleasing lack of lecturing and some darkly funny moments. The film will give audiences a real sense of hope born from courage, and we feel strongly that it will appeal well beyond arthouse audiences across Europe.”

Sold internationally by Intramovies, Dirty Difficult Dangerous is produced by Charlotte Vincent, Katia Khazak, with Marco Valerio Fusco, Micaela Fusco and Pierre Saraf as Co Producers. The film is an Aurora Films production, co-produced by Intramovies and Né à Beyrouth Films.

The screenplay is by Wissam Charaf, Mariette Désert, Hala Dabaji. Cinematography is by Martin Rit; editing by Clémence Diard; music by Zeid Hamdan, costumes by Thomas Marini, and sound by Pierre Bompey. The cast is Clara Couturet, Ziad Jallad, Rifaat Tarabey and Darina Al Joundi.

Previous winners of the Europa Cinemas Label in Venice include:
2021: Californie, Italy
2020: Oaza (Oasis), Serbia
2019: Corpus Christi, Poland
2018: Joy, Austria
2017: M, France
2016: Sami Blood, Sweden
2015: A peine j’ouvre les yeux, France
2014: I nostri ragazzi, Italy
2013: La belle vie, France
2012: Crawl, France
2011: Présumé coupable, France
2010: Le bruit des glaçons, France

Europa Cinemas in Venice: The 27 Times Cinema project returned to Venice this year for its thirteen edition. Set up by Europa Cinemas in partnership with the European Parliament and Giornate degli Autori, 27 young film-lovers, representing each of the 27 EU member states and selected among the young audiences of the Europa Cinemas Network, will be in Venice for the duration of the Mostra. The 27 filmgoers will attend screenings and participate in debates about the films, along with directors, film professionals and Members of the European Parliament. They will publish articles and contribute to the Europa Cinemas social networks. Since 2014, the members of the 27 Times Cinema team have been assigning the Giornate degli Autori Award, forming one of the largest and most unusual juries on the international film festival scene.

Europa Cinemas in 2022: 42 countries / 739 cities / 3059 screens. Europa Cinemas is supported by Creative Europe/MEDIA, Programme of the European Union (Brussels), CNC (France), Eurimages (Council of Europe, Strasbourg), FFA (Germany), Institut Français (Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, France)