Days after receiving the Arab Cinema Personality of the Year award, Arab Cinema Center (ACC) organizes an interview with Mouhamad Keblawi, Head of Malmö Arab Film Festival in Sweden, on Thursday, March 10th, at 3:00 PM (GMT). Streamed live on the Arab Cinema Center's (ACC) official Facebook, Instagram and Youtube pages, the discussion shall be moderated by Egyptian film critic Dr. Amal El-Gamal.
Streaming time of Mouhamad Keblawi’s Interview:
Tunisia/ Morocco/ Sweden: 4:00 PM
Egypt/ Sudan/ Palestine/ Lebanon: 5:00 PM
Saudi Arabia/ Jordan/ Kuwait: 6:00 PM
UAE: 7:00 PM
Mohamed Keblawi is a Swedish-Palestinian director and producer, who has worked in television and documentary film production. In 2011, he founded the Malmö Arab Film Festival in Sweden, which is set on encouraging Arab filmmakers to find more opportunities to tell their stories, and support Arab film projects. The festival screened hundreds of Arab films since its establishment, including Oscar-nominated films; Director Naji Abu Nowar's Jordanian film Theeb, Kaouther Ben Hania’s Tunisian film The Man Who Sold His Skin, and Palestinian short film The Present by Farah Nabulsi. The festival also featured several award-winning Arab films that have been to numerous international festivals; Wajib by director Annemarie Jacir, EXT. Night by Ahmad Abdalla, A Son by Mehdi Barsaoui, Gaza Mon Amour by Arab and Tarzan Nasser, and Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim by Sherif Elbendary, among others.
Mohamed Keblawi also launched MAFF Market Forum as part of the festival with the aim of supporting Arab film projects and helping them come to light. During its latest edition, the Forum presented monetary prizes worth of $ 250,000. Ever since it was created, this annual prize supported almost 100 projects including Costa Brava, Lebanon by Mounia Akl, Beauty and the Dogs by Kaouther Ben Hania, Captains of Zaatari by Ali El Arabi, 200 Meters by Ameen Nayfeh, Our River…Our Sky by Maysoon Pachachi, Communion by Nejib Belkadhi, Khartoum Offside by Marwa Zein, and Tiny Souls by Dina Naser.
Keblawi is also the founder of Arab Cinema in Sweden, a company that works on the distribution of Arab films in Sweden. These films include Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji’s Jordanian film The Journey, Sophie Boutros’ Lebanese film Solitaire, Mohamed Khan’s Egyptian film Factory Girl, and Khadija al-Salami’s Yemeni film I Am Nojoom, Age 10 and Divorced.
Most recently, Mohamed Keblawi received the City of Malmö’s Grant for Art and Culture for the year 2021. This is an annual grant allocated to twelve creators in the fields of music, theater, cinema and literature. From 2015 to 2017, he was a member of the documentary film nomination committee for the Guldbagge Awards, one that is considered as Sweden's Oscars.
Dr. Amal El-Gamal is an Egyptian writer and film critic with 10 books about film criticism to her credit. She holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy in Film Criticism. In 2009, Dr. Amal won the Abdel Hai Adib Award at Alexandria Film Festival for her script of Al Shabaka, which was based on Sherif Hatata's book. She has been a jury member of many prestigious film festivals in Italy, Malmö, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait and Sudan. These festivals include: El Gouna Film Festival, Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts, and Malmo Arab Film Festival. She has been selected many times to participate with her film studies in workshops at the University of Bonn, Germany. She is best known for her style that employs comparative criticism and symbology. Her books on film criticism include: Women.. in Her Eyes, Arab Film Co-production, Filmography, Film Co-production in Egyptian Cinema, Killers between Hemingway and Tarkovsky, Nawal Sadawy and Sherif Hatata, Life Experience, Cinematic Language in Literature: A Comparative Study between Tarkovsky and Sherif Hatata, Egyptian Films in International Film Circuits, Samir Farid: The Role Model Film Critic, Cross Cinema for Diversity: Limits of Description and Categorization, and Farid Shawky: Egyptian Cinema's Iconic Star.
During the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), Arab Cinema Center (ACC) granted Mohamad Keblawi the Arab Cinema Personality of the year award. This comes in recognition of his contribution and immense support to Arab Cinema through the Malmö Arab Film Festival in Sweden, with an aim to promote Arab cinema in Sweden and Scandinavia.
The Arab Cinema Personality of The Year award is part of its strategy of promoting the Arab film industry internationally and supporting Arab filmmakers. During the last years, Arab Cinema Center (ACC) presented the Arab Cinema Personality of The Year award to Chiraz Latiri, former Tunisian Minister of Cultural Affairs, Screenwriter and Producer Mohamed Hefzy, the President of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), Abdulhamid Juma, Chairman of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), and Masoud Amralla, Artistic Director of DIFF.
Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is a non-profit organization founded in 2015 by MAD Solutions. ACC also provides networking opportunities with representatives of companies and institutions specialized in co-production and international distribution, among others. ACC'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. Also, the activities include the issuance of Arab Cinema Magazine to be distributed at the leading international film festivals and markets.
Furthermore, newsletter subscription is now available on ACC's website, allowing users to obtain digital copies of Arab Cinema Magazine, as well as news on 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 ACC's partners and their future projects.
Arab Cinema Center has launched the Arab Cinema Directory in English language 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 film makers inside and outside the Arab world. It also aims to facilitate the connection between the Arab film and Filmmakers and the International market. It also helps International Filmmakers to easily identify the Arab Cinema Productions.
