Magma And Maybe Tomorrow Lead MENA-Linked Winners At Sheffield DocFest 2026
Sheffield, 14 June 2026 | Grand Jury Awards For Magma And Maybe Tomorrow, Plus Recognition For Birds Of War And One In A Million
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Sheffield DocFest 2026 has announced its award winners, with four films connected to the Middle East and North Africa recognized across the festival’s competitions and special awards.
The films are Magma, Maybe Tomorrow, Birds of War and One In A Million. They bring together stories connected to Algeria, Syria and Lebanon, from family memory and political disappearance to exile, journalism, childhood and the search for home.
Magma
Magma, directed by Mia Bendrimia, won the Grand Jury Award for the International First Feature Competition.
The documentary begins with a personal search. Bendrimia looks into her Algerian family’s ties to both sides of the Independence War, only to find a history shaped by silence, contradiction and buried memory.
Rather than treating the past as something settled, Magma follows how colonial history continues to live inside families. The film connects intimate questions of inheritance with wider political wounds that remain unresolved across generations.
Maybe Tomorrow
Maybe Tomorrow, directed by Wafa Mustafa and Waad Al-Kateab, won the Grand Jury Award in the International Short Film Competition.
The film follows Syrian activist Wafa Mustafa after her father disappears under Assad’s regime. Her search for answers becomes a record of loss, memory and the uncertainty carried by families of the disappeared.
Through one daughter’s story, Maybe Tomorrow opens onto a broader Syrian reality. It gives political violence a personal frame, without reducing it to private grief alone.
Birds of War
Birds of War, directed by Abd Alkader Habak and Janay Boulos, received a Special Mention for the Tim Hetherington Award.
The film follows the relationship between a London-based Lebanese journalist and a Syrian activist and cameraman across 13 years of revolution, war and exile. Their story is told through personal archives, messages, voice notes and footage from the front lines.
Birds of War places love beside journalism, not as escape from conflict, but as part of the same lived experience. It shows how private life, reporting and historical violence can become inseparable.
One In A Million
One In A Million, directed by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes, won the Shine Global Children’s Resilience Award for Documentary.
Filmed over 10 years, the film follows a Syrian girl and her family after they flee to Germany in 2015. Their journey moves between Syria, Germany and the difficult emotional space in between.
The film looks at exile through childhood and family life. It follows how displacement changes language, memory, relationships and the meaning of home over time.
The awards bring these four films into the final list of recognized titles at Sheffield DocFest 2026, alongside other documentaries from this year’s international programme.
Congratulations to Mia Bendrimia, Wafa Mustafa, Waad Al-Kateab, Abd Alkader Habak, Janay Boulos, Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes and their teams.
- Abbas Souzian, Istanbul