Christy Garland received the Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award for What Walaa Wants at the Margaret Mead Film Festival in New York .
“What we felt that was really strong about the film was the way that it is showing the kind of growth and development of a young woman who’s a very complex person,” said juror Toby Lee. “That it shows all of her internal contradictions that are also very much connected to the contradictions of the kind of larger historical and political context in which she lives.”
“Also, we like the cinematography,” said juror Sarah Elder. “The intimate nature of it and the access that the director had to the family and to the police academy.”