After its wide-ranging activities at the Venice International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) took part, for the second year in a row, in the 3rd Film and Television Careers Connection (FTCC). Organized by The Royal Film Commission - Jordan (RFC), from September 22-24, 2017, Film Analyst Alaa Karkouti, Managing Partner of the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) and CEO of MAD Solutions, was part of two panel discussions at the FTCC.
The discussions took place on September 24; the first was held at 02:00 pm, Jordan time (GMT +3) discussing the 1st Amman International Film Festival - Awal Film, which is going to be launched in 2018 and is co-organized by the Royal Film Commission - Jordan (RFC) and MAD Solutions, in collaboration with the ACC. Together with Karkouti, Nada Doumani, Communication & Cultural Programming Manager at the RFC, joined the discussion.
The second discussion was held at 05:20 pm, Jordan time (GMT +3), under the title of 'Regional Support for Arab Filmmakers', and was moderated by Doumani. Together with Karkouti, the guest speakers of this discussion included: Moroccan Film Critic Ahmad Oraib, Filmmaker/Producer Hanna Atallah, (Filmlab: Palestine), Iraqi Cinematographer Salam Salman, and Abedalsalam Alhajj (Royal Film Commission-Jordan).
The ACC's partner, Jordanian production house The Imaginarium Films (Rula Nasser), was also present at the FTCC.
The Film and Television Careers Connection (FTCC) is an annual event held in Amman that connects professionals in the audiovisual industry to coincide with and complete the festival. This will pave the way for talents in the various trades associated to the industry to be celebrated.
This three-day event - tailored around careers and jobs in the audiovisual industry - aims to bring together organizations, companies, freelancers and film students to network, thus enhancing efforts in the domain of film and TV employment. It also seeks to raise awareness of the filmmaking business that has created over 5000 jobs in Jordan in the past 10 years. During FTCC, prominent filmmakers will lead several seminars and panel discussions on different film topics, such as distribution, co-production, directing, acting, and others.
Organized by MAD Solutions, the Arab Cinema Center (ACC), which operates for the third year, 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 Center'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.
Since the beginning of 2017, the ACC has made twelve stops at international festivals and markets. The festivals attended are the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), Beirut Cinema Platform (BCP) held within the Beirut Cinema Days, Istanbul Film Festival, Tripoli Film Festival, the 34th WIPO SCCR in Geneva, Cannes Film Festival, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Eurasia International Film Festival, Locarno International Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival.
