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A Bahraini documentary that shines a light on the kingdom’s footballing females is a ‘goal-den’ success globally as it has scored big at a major international festival.
The 12-minute film Goalden Girls that tells the tale of Bahrain’s passionate national football players, in a bid to inspire people to never give up on their dreams, has won in two categories in the Cannes World Film Festival.
It was produced by Shaikha Dwa bint Khalid Al Khalifa.
“We were nominated for ‘Best Sports Film’, ‘Best Women Film’ and ‘Best Arabic Film’ at the Cannes World Film Festival, which is a worldwide IMDb Qualifying festival,” said Shaikha Dwa, a former international women’s football player for the Bahrain team who had 39 international appearances during her sporting career.
“On April 28, it was announced that we won the ‘Best Women Film’ and the ‘Best Arabic Film’ categories, which is amazing!”
Ahmed Al Alawi was the director of Goalden Girls alongside Haider Al Nasheet as director of photography, Noor Al Namliti as the writer and art director, Yaseen Al Aradi as an editor and Zeyad Al Adwan as the audio engineer.
The film was part of the second edition of the Project Documentaries programme put together by the US Embassy of Bahrain, Youth Affairs Ministry, Jaan Click Media and American Film Showcase.
Well-known director Mariam Abdulghaffar mentored the creative team.
“The team behind the production of this film really believed in the story and put in a lot of hard work to get the production done, and it’s a testament to the long hours and schedules that we had that they were able to do something of this quality,” said Shaikha Dwa, who is one of the founding members of the national women’s team and a member of the Bahrain Women’s Football Committee. She is currently the Youth Team Manager.
