Announcing the winner: The Whickers 2025 Close Up Bursary Winner

We are delighted to announce the winner of our bursary in partnership with Close Up Initiative, now in its fourth year.  Daham Alasaad, the director of Ashes, was announced as the winner of £3,000 at Close Up’s excellent Workshop and Pitching Forum held in Athens, Greece from June 3rd-9th. 

Ashes offers unique access to a powerful and deeply personal contemporary story about a Syrian tour guide who escapes the Assad regime. He then returns once Assad is overthrown to find himself caught up in the quest to bring Assad’s brutish henchmen to justice. Across Paris, Berlin, and Damascus, Syrian war survivors, along with the director, are looking for Syrian war criminals hiding across Europe to bring them to European courts. Is peace and justice within reach?  This is a story not just about legal accountability, but about memory, dignity, and the long road home. 

IEFTA’s Lianne Llewellyn and Whickers winner, Daham Alasaad

Our Artistic Director Jane Ray joined the forum remotely and the award was presented by IEFTA’s Lianne Llewellyn who served as the Whickers’ Ambassador in Athens. Lianne read out Jane’s statement: “This year’s Whicker Close Up Bursary Award goes to a film that has the potential to offer us something we badly need right now: Hope. A truly powerful film about Return and the possibility of Justice. It’s from a man who cheerfully admits to having 3 million pieces of evidence in his possession. The winner, who was once a tour guide from Palmyra, is now a passionate and committed film journalist. The name of the film, of course, is symbolic of atonement and rebirth.” 

Close Up is a training, development, and mentorship program for documentary filmmakers from Southwest Asia and North Africa. The Whicker Bursary is seed funding towards a first-time filmmaker unlikely to receive funding from their host nation for economic or socio-political reasons. 

Find out more about the bursary scheme HERE.