Arab Cinema Center launches the 17th edition of the Arab Film Magazine, whose editor in chief is American film expert Colin Brown, as part of its activities at Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals.
“In this edition, the magazine continues its campaigns to celebrate the history of Palestinian cinema and pay tribute to the substantial roles of women in the Arab film industry,” stated Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab, founding partners of Arab Cinema Center about the new edition, “The campaigns will run throughout this current year across all of the center's media channels, and more information on both campaigns will be revealed soon.”
As one of the prominent Arab cinema actors, Yousra opens this edition with an article referring to Arab cinema pioneers during the 1930s and 1940s, and the impact of actresses Fatan Hamam and Soad Hosny on her film career. The magazine includes research of the most active initiatives supporting women's cinema in the Arab world, as well as a research on the representation of Arab women filmmakers in the field of documentary filmmaking and the reasons behind their superiority in this field.
In the previous edition, published during the Cannes Film Festival in May, the magazine launched the campaign "75 years of Palestinian Cinema," highlighting the history of Palestinian cinema and its makers since 1946. On introducing the second phase of this campaign, Colin Brown wrote, “Despite the richness of Palestinian heritage as a meeting point for filmmaking that extends in the pre-establishment history of Israel, there is no consensus about what constitutes a Palestinian film,” adding, “As you will read in this edition of the magazine, in an article by critic and researcher Saleem Albiek, directors Najwa Najjar and Basil Khalil, Palestinian cinema is not defined with the location and content of the film industry, it is an exercise of identity; an influential idea that can contribute to broadening the definition of cinema in other Arab countries, and filmmaking in other countries already.”
The magazine released an initial list of extended Palestinian films from 1948 to 2021 as part of this campaign. Also, it asked readers to nominate films for the list of the 75 most important films in Palestinian cinema history. The vote will be held by a committee of film industry experts and others interested in Palestinian cinema from across the world.
Click on the following link to take part in the nomination of films from the list: http://acc.film/palestine75
In the previous edition, the magazine had published an article by Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad entitled "Cinema of Resistance: A Double Edged Weapon, " while Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir had written an article entitled "Cinema as an Act of Love."
In addition, the magazine includes fixed sections in each edition, such as the presence of Arabs at the Venice and Toronto film festivals in 2022, sections highlighting the achievements of four Arab Cinema Center partners over the last year, and updates on the activities of the Center's partners.
About Arab Cinema Center:
Founded by MAD Solutions in 2015, Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is a non profit organization, which promotes for Arab cinema and provides a professional window to connect film professionals with their counterparts from all over the world through a number of events that it organizes. ACC 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, 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, news on the ACC's activities, notifications of application dates for grants, festivals and offers from educational and training institutions, updates on Arab films screening at festivals, exclusive news on ACC's partners and their future projects.
ACC 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.
