As part of its intensive activities at the Cannes Film Festival, Arab Cinema Center (ACC) launched the 15th issue of Arab Cinema Magazine, with American film expert Colin Brown as the editorial director. The new edition features the final nominees for the Critics Awards for Arab Films, the 2022’s Achievement Award for Film Critics winners, a list with the most influential personalities in the 2021’s Arab film industry, as well as two profiles for ACC’s recent initiatives for Palestian cinema, and the significant role of the Arab women filmmakers in the film industry. The two profiles includes personal essays, written by palestinian directors Hany Abu-Assad and Annemarie Jacir, as well as Tunisian-Egyptian star Hend Sabry.
The 6th edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films - films that screened in 2021’s international festivals - features the participation of 167 film critics, from 68 countries across the world, as voters for this year. ACC has also presented this year’s Achievement Award for Film Critics for American Film Critic Jay Weissberg and Iraqi Film Critic Ziad Khuzai, who contributes to the new edition of The Magazine with an article titled “The Ability to Dismantle Cinema’s Charms”
Under the title “75 years of Palestinian Cinema”, ACC has launched a campaign sheding light on the most significant Palestinian films and filmmakers since 1946.
In support of the campaign, Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad wrote an article titled “Resistance Cinema: A Double-Edged Sword”, while Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir wrote an article titled “Cinema as an Act of Love”. The Magazine has also invited audiences and film experts to contribute to the selection of the most significant 75 Palestinian films by submitting their recommendatins via a page linked to the Arab Cinema online website.
Click on the following link to nominate films to the list: http://acc.film/palestine75
The 4th edition of the Most Influential Personalities in the Arab Film Industry witnessed considerable changes in its list of directors and stars. A new section has also been added to include the film crew members behind the cameras in the aspects of the writing, editing, music, and costume design.
On the other hand, superstar Hend Sabry opens The Role of Arab Women in the Film Industry profile with an article under the title “As women of this region, we should own our stories, and, boy, do we have stories to tell!”. Through the article, Sabry tackled how she started her career as an actress, working with Tunisian director Moufida Tlatli in The Silences of the Palace film. The article also talked about the effort of the Arab women in the film industry to achieve equality, the developments in the Saudi film industry led by women filmmakers, and the role of the new digital platforms in empowering women, such as Netflix with whom Hend Sabry collaborated in her latest series Finding Ola (2022).
Linking this campaign to the other featured topics, The Magazine has published statistics about the presence of Arab Women in Cannes Film Festival since its launch up till now, as well as a list with Most Influential Personalities in the Arab Film Industry.
This all comes along with the regular sections of each year’s edition, such as The Arab Presence in Cannes Film Festival 2022, profiles of 5 ACC’s partners achievements during last year, and updates on the achievements of all the partners of ACC, during the same period.
Palestinian Cinema, and Women in Film Industry campaigns are slated to continue throughout the whole year, through ACC’s digital platforms and The Magazine that is distributed at the leading international film festivals, such as Rotterdam, Cannes, Locarno, Venice, Toronto, and Red Sea film festivals. ACC and Arab Cinema Magazine shall also allow the participation of film stars and experts, in the various aspects of the Arab film industry, in the two topics, as well as many other aspects that ACC shall add to the campaigns later this year, to be announced soon.
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.
