{"id":22322,"date":"2025-12-19T09:05:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T09:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/?p=22322"},"modified":"2025-12-19T10:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:07:14","slug":"13th-poetry-film-competition-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/13th-poetry-film-competition-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"13th Poetry-Film Competition Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

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13th \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al Poetry-Film Competition Winner Announced<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

2nd November 2025<\/i><\/p>\n

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We are thrilled to announce that filmmaker Abdullah Harun Ilhan<\/strong> from Palestine\/Turkiye, with his superb poetry film Free Words – A Poet from Gaza<\/strong><\/em>, has won \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al’s 13th poetry-film competition, as announced at the \u00d3\u00a0Bh\u00e9al<\/a> Poetry Film Festival awards ceremony. <\/font><\/p>\n

Free Words – A Poet from Gaza<\/strong><\/font> was chosen from 176 submissions<\/strong><\/a> received from 140 filmmakers in 41 countries. The 2025 shortlist represents 18 countries: <\/font>Australia, Belgium, China, Dubai, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Palestine, Spain, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Turkey, UK, Ukraine <\/strong> and the <\/strong>USA<\/strong>.<\/font>
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Free Words – A Poet from Gaza<\/strong><\/font> (10:00)<\/font><\/center><\/p>\n

Poems: What is Home? \/ We Love What We Have<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

by Mosab Abu Toha<\/font><\/center><\/p>\n

Synopsis<\/strong> – “Free Words: A Poet from Gaza” is a documentary-poetryfilm that explores the life and artistry of Mosab Abu Toha, a gifted poet whose voice resonates from the heart of Gaza. The film delves into Mosab’s journey as he navigates the complexities of living in oppression and occupation. Detained by the Israeli military, Mosab’s imprisonment sparked an outcry from the international literary community, highlighting the profound impact of his work and the power of poetry as a tool.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Director: Abdullah Harun Ilhan<\/strong> (Palestine\/Turkiye)<\/font><\/p>\n

Abdullah Harun \u0130lhan was born in Malatya, T\u00fcrkiye. His interest in visual arts began at an early age. This interest led him to shoot his first short film at the age of eleven. More than one hundred short films and documentaries he made were shown at international film festivals and were awarded several awards. Ilhan graduated from various universities and film schools from the USA, UK, T\u00fcrkiye, South Korea and Qatar. He has contributed to film and photography projects in around 70 countries. He continues his work in Turkish, English and Arabic languages.<\/font><\/p>\n

 
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\u201cA new phrase has entered my lexicon since this year’s \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al Poetry Film Competition – Documentary Poetry Film – It’s where a film can have elements of poetry and elements of short documentary combined. As a poetry film maker, myself, I am excited to make one of these, and I already have a Gold Standard to aspire to. That’s the wonderful – Free Words – A Poet from Gaza – overall winner this year. In it Director Abdullah Harun Ilhan interweaves the deeply moving poetry of Mosab Abu Toha with his skill as a documentary maker to create an important piece of film art. I can’t wait to read more of Abu’s poems and watch more of Abdullah’s films.\u201d <\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

– Colm Scully<\/strong><\/font><\/div>\n

\u201cI was spellbound by the combined power of Abdullah’s film and Mosab’s poems. Ten riveting minutes that passed in the blink of an eye. Sublime storytelling. Superlative filmmaking.\u201d <\/em> <\/p>\n

– Paul Casey<\/strong><\/div>\n

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<\/font>Submissions will open for the 14th \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al Poetry-Film Competition from May 2026, at this link<\/a>.<\/b><\/font><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13th \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al Poetry-Film Competition Winner Announced 2nd November 2025 We are thrilled to announce that filmmaker Abdullah Harun Ilhan from Palestine\/Turkiye, with his superb poetry film Free Words – A Poet from Gaza, has won \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al’s 13th poetry-film competition, as announced at the \u00d3\u00a0Bh\u00e9al Poetry Film Festival awards ceremony. Free Words – A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22322"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22332,"href":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22322\/revisions\/22332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}