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The 13th Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth has announced its winners, recognising Arabic and international shorts alongside animation, documentary and student filmmaking.
Oug and Little Big Dreams have won the Arabic and international short-film awards at the Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFF) 2026. The prizes were presented on 1 November 2026 at the Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park, with the results announced publicly the following day.
Organised by FANN – Media Discovery Platform, the festival also recognised The Great Dreamscape for short animation and Fellow for student short animation. Separate awards celebrated student live-action work and films made by children and young people.
SIFF 2026 short-film, documentary and student award winners
| Award | Winning film | Director or directors |
|---|---|---|
| Best Arabic Short Film | Oug | Abdulrahman Al Madani |
| Best International Short Film | Little Big Dreams | Shweta Parakh and Rakesh E. Nair |
| Best Short Animated Film | The Great Dreamscape | Rémi Durin |
| Best Documentary Film | The Path of Memory, Between the Lands of Jasmine and Basil | Areej Alghamdi |
| Best Child and Youth-Made Film | The Monster | Sohee Lee |
| Best Student Short Film | Mabrouk Aleiko | Mariam Janini |
| Best Student Short Animated Film | Fellow | Martha Rivière, Laura Darras, Théo Bergougnoux, Gaspard Keller de Schleitheim, Johanne Coppier and Romane Casha |
Oug and Little Big Dreams lead the fiction shorts
Emirati director Abdulrahman Al Madani’s Oug won Best Arabic Short Film. The ten-minute, Arabic-language short follows a couple shopping for a gift for their newborn nephew while facing pressure from relatives to have children of their own. An unexpected visit from the husband’s mother brings the couple’s underlying tensions into the open.
Best International Short Film went to India’s Little Big Dreams, directed by Shweta Parakh and Rakesh E. Nair. The 15-minute Hindi-language film centres on a girl in Ladakh whose friends embark on a journey to raise money for her education. Their attempt to help takes an unexpected direction, opening possibilities beyond their original plan.
Both films were produced in 2025, according to SIFF’s official programme. The catalogue lists Little Big Dreams as a Middle East premiere at the 2026 festival, while Oug screened without a premiere designation.
Animation, student films and documentary recognised
Rémi Durin’s The Great Dreamscape received Best Short Animated Film. In the separate student animation category, Fellow won for its six-director team, while Mariam Janini’s Mabrouk Aleiko took Best Student Short Film.
Areej Alghamdi’s The Path of Memory, Between the Lands of Jasmine and Basil won Best Documentary Film. The 34-minute Saudi Arabian production follows young Juman and her mother through the cultural heritage of women from southern Saudi Arabia. Poetry, dance and song connect the child’s experiences with the traditions of Jazan and Al Baha.
The documentary’s title is reproduced here as it appears in the official programme; the closing announcement uses “Land” rather than “Lands”.
A programme selected from 1,802 submissions
SIFF’s 13th edition programmed 71 competition films from 38 countries, alongside eight out-of-competition screenings. Organisers selected the programme from 1,802 submissions across 72 countries and reported attendance of more than 50,000 visitors, participants and students across the festival’s activities.
The Thai feature Gohan received the festival’s inaugural Audience Award. That distinction was separate from the short-film and student prizes.
SIFF’s educational work also includes its Junior Jurors Programme, which trains participants aged 12–20 to analyse films and select the winner in the Child and Youth-Made Films category. This year’s award went to Sohee Lee’s The Monster.
What filmmakers should watch next
The 2026 competition has concluded. Filmmakers considering a future SIFF entry should consult the festival’s official announcements for the next call and check its current category and eligibility requirements before applying.
For help planning a wider festival run, read Indie Shorts Mag’s guide to submitting your short film to festivals. The winners above also offer a starting point for exploring the fiction, animation and nonfiction work selected by SIFF’s different juries.
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