Kenya’s ‘Money Town’, Rwanda’s ‘Benimana’, and Sudan’s ‘About Love and September Laws’ Among 2025 Red Sea Souk Awards Winners

Kenyan series project Money Town is among the winners at the 2025 Red Sea Souk Awards, presented on 10 December at the just-concluded Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The awards offer crucial financial support at various stages of a project’s lifecycle, including development, production, and post-production, as well as dedicated support for projects within The Lodge and SeriesLab.

Money Town won the 10,000 USD Red Sea Souk Series Awards, alongside Egypt’s Side Effects, which won the same prize. Money Town’s journey at Red Sea began in April 2025 when it was selected for the Red Sea Labs’ SeriesLab, a programme that included intensive workshops in Los Angeles (in partnership with Film Independent), culminating in a final pitch in December 2025 at the Red Sea Souk Project Market, the market arm of the Red Sea Film Festival, where 14 other African projects were also presented.

Written and directed by Tony Koros and produced by Toni Kamau (The Battle for Laikipia), the eight-episode comedy follows the chaos that erupts when a tech billionaire swoops into a lively rural Kenyan village and starts showering the community with free money.

Another winner at the Red Sea Souk Awards was Sudanese filmmaker Mohamed Kordofani (one of the biggest winners of the night) who received three awards for his project About Love and September Laws: a 50,000 USD Leyth Production in-kind Award for Editing; a 12,000 USD Shift Studios Award for promotion; and a 25,000 USD Red Sea Souk Development Award, awarded by the Red Sea Souk Projects in Development Jury.

About Love and September Laws is Kordofani’s first project since his feature debut Goodbye Julia, the first Sudanese film to screen in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes and Sudan’s submission to the 2024 Oscars. Set in 1983 Sudan, where Sharia Law is being enforced, About Love and September Laws follows a doctor, a translator, and an African-American journalist who become entangled in love and resistance amid the nation’s political upheaval.

Price of Evil, another Sudanese project, also won the 25,000 USD Red Sea Souk Development Award. Directed by Ibrahim Mursal, the film follows a Norwegian-Sudanese man who must decide the punishment for his grandfather’s murderer according to Sudanese law: prison, forgiveness or the death penalty.

Rwanda’s Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo won two awards for her project Benimana: the 40,000 USD Red Sea Souk Post-Production Award, awarded by the Red Sea Souk WIP Jury, and a 32,500 USD Filmmore in-kind Award. A decade in the making, Benimana tells the story of Veneranda, a survivor of the genocide against the Tutsi who has built a life rooted in reconciliation and restraint, until her daughter reveals an unexpected pregnancy, unraveling the quiet order she has clung to.

From across Africa, Nigerian filmmaker Cheta Chukwu received a 15,000 USD Red Sea Souk Jury Special Mention Award and 5,000 USD in-kind award for professional business and legal support for his project To Catch a Falling Sky, while Easy Distribution awarded in-kind award for Film distribution in Tunisia equivalent to $10,000 to Rani Massalha’s The Prodigal Son.

EDITOR’S NOTE: All reporting, interviews, and reviews on Sinema Focus are protected under international copyright law and the Kenya Copyright Act, 2001. No part of this publication may be reproduced, rewritten, republished, or redistributed in any form by media outlets without prior written consent. For reprint or syndication inquiries, contact editorial@sinemafocus.com.

©️ 2026 Sinema Focus / African Film Press. All rights reserved.