While the city of Berlin is covered in red to celebrate the 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival, the seventh issue of the Arab Cinema Magazine comes out with a purple cover symbolizing a striking bright year in 2018. The new issue unveils the remarkable expansion in the number of the jury members of the Annual Critics Awards, organized by the Arab Cinema Center (ACC); it has more than doubled since the first edition last year. The Arab Cinema Magazine is issued by the ACC with an aim to introduce the latest trends in the Arab film industry to the international film industry at some of the most important international film festivals.
Film expert Colin Brown, Managing Partner and Director of International Operations at MAD Solutions, and the magazine's Editorial Director, dedicated some lines about the moment late Egyptian film critic Samir Farid was awarded the Berlinale Camera trophy at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival in his introductory statement for the new issue titled 'Mirrors of Our Freedom'. "Those who knew him well remembered how Farid always used to say you can measure the degree of freedom a public has from their ability to see themselves on screen. If people have the ability to be confronted by their own reality, no matter how uncomfortable that reality might be in the mirror, they are free. And there in a nutshell is one cinema's core reasons-for-being - and why festivals and critics still matter in an age when the endless entertainment choices at our fingertips keep threatening to drown both out as redundant artifacts of a celluloid past," wrote Brown.
As an example of freedom, Brown casted light on a survey in this edition of the magazine about the topics of the Arab films that dominated each country's box office last year and how do they definite the levels of freedom in Arab societies. Freedom is also an important element of this edition's survey on the latest and exciting developments in the Arab film industry, especially in Saudi Arabia after it announced that it will allow movie theaters to open in the Kingdom for the first time in more than 35 years of banning.
The new issue of the magazine announces the names of the 62 film critics who came from 28 countries from all over the world to select the winners of the 2nd Annual Critics Awards. Launched during the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the 1st Annual Critics Awards jury committee brought together 24 film critics, including Egyptian film critic Samir Farid, who passed away in early 2017. Brown mentioned Farid's excitement to join the jury committee in spite of his illness at the time.
The new issue also reveals exclusive details on the Arab Cinema Personality of the Year Award presented bythe Arab Cinema Center (ACC) in collaboration with The Hollywood Reporter.
Maher Diab, Art Director and Co-founder of MAD Solutions and the Arab Cinema Center (ACC), talks about choosing the purple color for the new issue's cover rather than the red color that takes over most of the printed material at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), saying, "Each year, the Pantone Color Institute picks a color that symbolizes the following year. Our color choice was based on Pantone's choice whose name is known worldwide as the standard language for color communication from designer to manufacturer to retailer to customer. Pantone has chosen 'Ultra Violet' as the color of the year 2018. Violet, one of the seven basic colors of the rainbow, symbolizes new scientific discoveries beyond and suggests the mysteries of the cosmos. From this innovative perspective, we picked purple as the color of the new issue's cover."
This issue also includes an ad about a poll of the 50 Top Influential Names in the Arab Film Industry. The poll shall be based on votes by the largest number of professional filmmakers from across the cinematically active Arab countries. The results of the poll are going to be featured in the magazine's upcoming issue during the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
The Arab Cinema Magazine continues its support for promising Arab talents, as its new issue casts light on each of the stars Saleh Bakri (Palestine), Adila Bendimerad (Algeria), Diamand Abou Abboud (Lebanon), Kamel El Basha (Palestine), Amir El-Masry (Egypt) and director Lucien Bourjeily (Lebanon). The new issue also includes a feature that tracks Arab talents' successful participations in some of Hollywood's biggest productions, like the upcoming live-action remake of Disney's Aladdin.
By attending the Berlinale, the Arab Cinema Center is now making its second stop in 2018 after completing its successful activities at the International Film Festival Rotterdam - IFFR. The ACC aims to attend more than 20 international film festivals and markets annually.
First 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 market main wings, introduction and networking sessions for 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, 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 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 comprises a variety of tools presented collectively for the first time to offer information on Arab cinema to filmmakers inside and outside of the Arab world. It also aims to facilitate filmmakers' access to international markets and help film industry representatives to easily identify Arab film productions.
