Fez — Nabil Ayouch’s feature “Everybody Loves Touda” has won Thessaloniki’s Alpha Bank Accessibility Award, a prize distinguishing works that advance inclusion and access on screen and in exhibition. The festival highlighted the film’s intimate focus on a single mother navigating social pressures while raising her deaf child, underscoring a right to communication, dignity, and artistic expression.
What the award recognizes
The Accessibility Award at Thessaloniki honors productions that expand how audiences with disabilities experience cinema and how stories about disability are represented.
In its citation, the festival emphasized the film’s deeply humane mother-son relationship and its broader call to consider accessibility beyond art alone.
The film at a glance
Starring Nisrin Erradi, “Everybody Loves Touda” follows a young singer who dreams of becoming a sheikha, an empowered traditional performer.
She leaves her provincial life for Casablanca in search of recognition and a better future for her child. The movie premiered in Cannes Première in 2024.
Part of a strong international run
Beyond Cannes, the film has collected year-end honors, including two Critics’ Awards for Arab Films at Cannes 2025—Best Screenplay for Ayouch and Maryam Touzani, and Best Actress for Erradi. It also served as Morocco’s official submission for the 97th Academy Awards’ Best International Feature category.
Thessaloniki’s wider results
This year’s top Golden Alexander went to Suzannah Mirghani’s “Cotton Queen.” “Everybody Loves Touda” took Thessaloniki’s accessibility laurel, with the complementary spotlighting the film’s social impact as much as its craft.
With the Thessaloniki recognition, “Everybody Loves Touda” adds an inclusion-focused distinction to its festival journey, strengthening the film’s profile as a culturally rooted story carrying a universal message about voice, visibility, and the bonds that shape them.
