The Red Sea International Film Festival announced the winning projects of the second edition of its Red Sea Souk Awards, in which the Arab Cinema Center (ACC), MAD Solutions, and the Arab Radio and Television Network (ART) presented five cash and in-kind awards.
The ACC presented two invitations for producers to participate in the Rotterdam Lab of the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam. The first one went to the Saudi project YOU WERE THE POET AND I THOUGHT I EXISTED produced by Lujain Bakhashwain and the second one went to the Arab non-Saudi project TRIP TO JERUSALEM produced by Gaby and Michel Zarazir.
Meanwhile, the ART’s award was a deal to acquire the distribution rights of the winning film(s) across the Arab world. The first award — which is worth $50,000 for a Saudi Arabian project in development or production — went to YOU WERE THE POET AND I THOUGHT I EXISTED, and the second award – also worth $50,000 but for a non-Saudi project in development or in production — went to BUBBLEGUM BRIGADE.
MAD Solutions also presented an award involving a distribution deal in the Arab world worth $50,000, which went to the Moroccan project Meryem Benm’barek’s BEHIND THE PALM TREES.
In addition to the Red Sea Souk’s events, the ACC and its partners are participating in different events, competitions, and parallel programs.
The ACC partners at the RSIFF in alphabetical order are:
The Arab Radio And Television Network - ART (Saudi Arabia), Cairo International Film Festival (Egypt), Cinema 70 (Saudi Arabia), Film Clinic (Egypt), Greener Screen (UAE), Iraqi Cinema (Iraq), IEFTA (Monaco), Lagoonie Film Production (Egypt), MAD Solutions (Egypt, UAE, Lisbon) and its two affiliated companies (MAD Celebrity and MAD Distribution), Malmö Arab Film Festival (Sweden), Neom (Saudi Arabia), Pan East Media (Jordan), The Imaginarium Films (Jordan) and The Latin Arab International Film Festival (Argentina).
The Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is a non-profit organization based in Berlin and founded by MAD Solutions in 2015. The ACC provides networking opportunities with representatives of companies and institutions specialized in co-production and international distribution, among others.
The organization’s activities vary between film markets, stands, pavilions, networking sessions, one-on-one meetings bringing together Arab and foreign filmmakers, welcome parties, and meetings with international organizations and festivals. It also publishes the Arab Cinema Magazine, which it distributes at leading international film festivals and markets.
It is worth noting that a newsletter subscription is now available on the ACC's website, allowing users to obtain digital copies of the Arab Cinema Magazine, as well as news on the ACC's activities, notifications of application dates for grants, festivals and offers from educational and training institutions, updates on Arab films participating at festivals, exclusive news on the Arab Cinema LAB, and highlights from the ACC's partners and their future projects.
Additionally, the ACC launched the Arab Cinema Directory in English on its website, which is a comprehensive cinema directory that provides multiple tools in one place for the first time in order to enhance easy access to information on cinema to filmmakers inside and outside the Arab world.
It also aims to facilitate the connection between Arab films and filmmakers and the international market, helping international filmmakers to easily identify Arab cinema productions.
