The Dubai International Film Festival ended Wednesday, when the winners of the festival's Muhr Awards were announced at the closing ceremony, the awards recognize the best in Arab cinema every year.

The Muhr Feature Awards category saw Tunisian director Leyla Bouzid and Egyptian director Mahmood Soliman take home the two top awards.

Bouzid's acclaimed debut feature "As I Open My Eyes" won in the Best Muhr Fiction Feature category and Soliman's documentary "We Have Never Been Kids" won the Best Muhr Non-fiction Feature category, Soliman also won Best Director for the film.

The Algerian film "Let Them Come," directed by Salem Brahimi, received the Special Jury Prize Muhr Feature award.

As for the Best Actor and Best Actress awards, Tunisian actor Lotfi Abdelli won for his performance in "Borders of Heaven" and Egyptian actress Menna Shalabi won for her performance in "Nawara."

The Muhr Emirati Awards category saw Saeed Salmeen's "Going to Heaven" win the Best Muhr Emirati Feature award, Amna Al-Nowais' "Omnia" win the Best Muhr Emirati Short award and Nasser Al-Dhaheri win the Best Director for his film "A Tale of Water, Palm Trees and Family."

In the Muhr Short Awards category, Palestinian director Basil Khalil's "Ave Maria" won the Best Muhr Short award and Saudi director Faiza Ambah's "Mariam" won the Special Jury Prize award.

Finally, the Muhr Gulf Short Awards category saw Iraqi director Rizgar Husen's "The Boss" win Best Muhr Gulf Short and Saudi director Hind Al Fahhad's "Peddiers" win Special Jury Prize.

In addition to the Muhr Awards, prominent Palestinian director Hany Abu Assad won the People's Choice Award at the ceremony for "The Idol", his biopic about the life of celebrated Palestinian singer Mohamed Assaf.

After the awards ceremony was over, prominent American actor Jake Gyllenhaal was honored with Variety Magazine's International Star of the Year award, which was followed by a closing screening of American director Adam McKay’s Golden Globe-nominated drama “The Big Short.”

The Dubai International Film Festival, which was earlier this year named one of the world's top 15 film festivals by Condé Nast Traveler magazine for the second time, took place between Dec. 9-16 at Madinat Jumeirah.

The 12th edition showcased over 120 features, film shorts and documentaries from around the world and included numerous world premieres.