Arab Cinema Center (ACC) has revealed the launch of its campaign titled 75 years of Palestinian Cinema, as part of its activities at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The campaign sheds light on the most significant Palestinian films and filmmakers since 1946, when Salah Badrkhan directed the first feature-length film, Dream of a Night, which premiered in Jaffa and Jerusalem.
“We work throughout the year to shed light on the development and achievements of Palestinian cinema by contributing to the selection of the most significant 75 Palestinian films released between 1946 and 2021,” Alaa Karkouti, co-founder of Arab Cinema Center said, discussing the notable elements of the campaign. “It is a large and challenging effort because so much of Palestinian cinema's heritage has been destroyed due to the Israeli occupation, which is why we collaborate with film institutes and industry experts from Palestine and the Arab states.”
Karkouti added: “The first stage of this mission will be inaugurated here at Cannes, where the general public from all over the Arab world is invited to submit their favourite films via a page linked to the Arab Cinema online website. Moreover, Through this move, we hope to inspire the people to share their film legacy and, possibly, revive sections of it by placing it in the limelight. Therefore, during the coming weeks, we will convene a committee of industry professionals to select and reveal the final list."
Click on the following link to nominate films to the list: http://acc.film/palestine75
Regarding the campaign's cultural component, Maher Diab the co-founder of ACC stated that, "In the 15th edition of Arab Film magazine, published during Cannes festival, we asked two of today's most prominent Palestinian filmmakers, Hany Abu-Assad and Anne Marie Jasser, to write about their experiences in the film industry as Palestinians, and we will continue to provide room for more filmmakers to convey their experiences in upcoming issues of the magazine, which is distributed at the world's most prestigious film festivals.”
“Throughout the year, we will use all of the center's online platforms to provide information about Palestinian films and focus on the forgotten important topics in its rich history, " Diab added.
Organized by MAD Solutions in 2015, the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is an international promotional platform for Arab cinema as it provides the filmmaking industry with a professional window to connect with their counterparts from all over the world through a number of events that it organizes. The ACC also provides networking opportunities with representatives of companies and institutions specialized in co-production and international distribution, among others. The ACC's activities vary between film markets, stands, and pavilions, networking sessions and one-on-one meetings bringing together Arab and foreign filmmakers, welcome parties, as well as meetings with international organizations and festivals, and the issuance of the Arab Cinema Magazine to be distributed at the leading international film festivals and markets.
Furthermore, 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.
The ACC also launched an English-language Arab Cinema Guide, available on its website, which is a comprehensive cinematic guide that provides a variety of tools presented collectively for the first time to offer information on Arab cinema to filmmakers inside and outside the Arab world. It also aims to facilitate filmmakers' access to international markets and help film industry representatives easily identify Arab film productions.
