It was an eventful ceremony for Arab cinema at the closing night of the Final Cut in Venice workshop as three Arab film projects received 9 awards. Held as part of the 75th edition of the Venice International Film Festival, the awards presented at the workshop are offered by different Arab and non-Arab film institutes.
The Waiting Bench documentaryfilm projectby Sudanese director Suhaib Gasmelbari won five awards. The awards are the MAD Solutions Award that offers marketing and distribution services across the Arab world to the winning film project, the Mactari Mixing Auditorium (Paris) award that offers up to €15,000 for the sound mixing of a feature-length film, the Rai Cinema award that offers €5,000 for the purchase of two-year broadcasting rights, the Eye on Films label that presents the film to distributors and festivals and promotes the film for a value of €2,500 during its world premiere at an A-category festival, in addition to an award offered by the El Gouna Film Festival.
Certified Mail feature film project by Egyptian director Hisham Saqr won a monetary award of €5000 offered by Lagoonie Film Production to support it through its next production stages.The film project also won an awardoffered by Laser Film thatgrants €15,000 for the color correction of a feature-length film, and a monetary award of €5,000 offered by the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).
Movement documentaryfilm project by Moroccan director Nadir Bouhmouch received the La Biennale di Venezia prize of €5,000 for the best film in post-production.
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 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'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 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.
The Arab Cinema Center announced the launch of the MAD 3ARABI (Arab Flow) in Prague, Czech Republic. The festival aims to introduce the Arab culture and focus on the film and TV industry, flowing Arab entertainment and culture onto European shores, and also providing an extension for Arab filmmakers and content creators in the entertainment industry to reach new shores.
