Congratulations! During a ceremony held at the offices of the Beirut Art Film Festival (BAFF), the awards for the Best Visual Contest for BAFF 2018 were presented to Nivine Zaheredine, student at Modern University for Business and Science (MUBS) who was awarded First Prize (1000 USD). Runner-up Mazen Asmar, student at the Lebanese University Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture Department of Graphic Design and Visual Communication, Branch 2, was awarded Second Prize (500 USD).

The ceremony was attended by the BAFF organizing committee and the jury members: Laura Shorter (Director and wife of the UK Ambassador, BAFF partner), Kristin Smith (Cultural Attaché of the US embassy, BAFF partner), Ellen Peterson (from the US Embassy), photographers Roger Moukarzel, Ghada Waked, and Nasri Sayegh, director Hadi Zaccak, and organizing committee Pierre Sarraf, Maria Chakhtoura, Nadine Mokdessi and Alice Mogabgab. Also present at the ceremony was Rima Ammar, Chair of the Art & Design Department, MUBS.

BAFF launched for the first time last year a competition for senior year advertising and graphic arts students from different universities. Given the success of this initiative and the enthusiasm of the students, the organizing committee decided to expand the number of participating universities and invited the following to take part in the competition: Saint-Joseph University of Beirut (USJ), Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), American University of Beirut (AUB), Beirut Arab University (BAU), Lebanese American University (LAU), Antonine University, Haigazian University, Lebanese University, Notre-Dame University (NDU), Al Kafaat University (AKU), University of Balamand, and the Modern University for Business and Science (MUBS).

“Through this initiative, the BAFF aims to reach out to young people and encourage them to research current artistic topics that are of interest to them, but above all to participate concretely in the promotion of a national event” said the members of the BAFF committee. The Beirut Art Film Festival will take place in two stages: BAFF Intramuros at Metropolis-Empire-Sofil from 20-25 November 2018 and BAFF Extramuros all over Lebanon from 1-30 November 2018 in the campuses of partner universities, in Lebanese schools and in the regional cultural centers

The program of the 4^th edition will be announced on Wednesday October 24 during a press conference, on social networks, in Virgin Megastore (all branches and online ticketing platform), as well as BAFF website and newsletter.