Cannes: 'Samouni Road' Takes Golden Eye Documentary Prize

The film was selected from 17 across festival sections.


This year's Golden Eye documentary prize at the Cannes film festival was awarded to Stefano Savona's Samouni Road.


The Directors' Fortnight entry was recognized for its "intelligent way of filming, the right distance in its point of view, its sensitive outlook, the brilliant and subtle use of animation to strengthen the storytelling."


The part live-action and part animated film tells the story of the 2009 killing of 29 Palestinians.


It was selected from the 17 films eligible for the prize, including Wim Wenders' Pope Francis: A Man of His Word and Kevin MacDonald’s Whitney about the life of late singer Whitney Houston.


This year, Cesar-winning director Emmanuel Finkiel served as jury president, with actress Lolita Chammah, BAFTA-winning British director Kim Longinotto, film critic Isabelle Danel, and True/False Festival director Paul Sturtz.


The jury also awarded special mentions to Mark Cousins for The Eyes of Orson Welles and Michel Tosca for Libre.


The annual prize for non-fiction films is selected from across Cannes festival programming lineups, including the Official Selection, Un Certain Regard, special and out-of-competition screenings, short films, Cannes Classics, Directors’ Fortnight, Critics’ Week and ACID sidebars.


The prize was founded in 2015 by the French writers’ union SCAM, with the support of the festival, France’s National Audiovisual Institute and Audiens.