Acquisitions include upcoming films Yousry Nasrallah, Muayad Alayan and Mohamed ben Attia.
Cairo-based film company Mad Solutions has unveiled an acquisition slate of more than 50 Arabic-language titles from 13 different territories that it plans to get into festivals and cinemas across the Middle East and North Africa in 2021 and 2022.
“During the pandemic, we used the opportunity to discuss the objectives and goals for Arab films, to strengthen links with the public, and to be a part of projects from the beginning, developing the films together,” said company co-heads Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab. “We feel that there is a bright future...
Cairo-based film company Mad Solutions has unveiled an acquisition slate of more than 50 Arabic-language titles from 13 different territories that it plans to get into festivals and cinemas across the Middle East and North Africa in 2021 and 2022.
“During the pandemic, we used the opportunity to discuss the objectives and goals for Arab films, to strengthen links with the public, and to be a part of projects from the beginning, developing the films together,” said company co-heads Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab. “We feel that there is a bright future...
- 5/28/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
The Cairo International Film Festival scrapped the red carpet and press conference for Egyptian filmmaker Islam El Azzazi’s debut feature and competition film “About Her” after a number of sexual misconduct allegations were made against the director and surfaced in the hours before the film’s world premiere this week.
The first of the allegations against the director was submitted anonymously to Daftar Hekayat, an Arabic blog that shares stories of sexual violence survivors in their own words. Since the film screened at the festival, other women have come forward. On Thursday, a fifth testimony was published on Egyptian feminist forum elmodawana.com with further misconduct allegations against the filmmaker. It is understood a sixth individual has also come forward.
The festival, which ran Dec. 2-10, released a statement on its official Facebook page soon after the allegations were made explaining why they decided to go ahead with the premiere.
The first of the allegations against the director was submitted anonymously to Daftar Hekayat, an Arabic blog that shares stories of sexual violence survivors in their own words. Since the film screened at the festival, other women have come forward. On Thursday, a fifth testimony was published on Egyptian feminist forum elmodawana.com with further misconduct allegations against the filmmaker. It is understood a sixth individual has also come forward.
The festival, which ran Dec. 2-10, released a statement on its official Facebook page soon after the allegations were made explaining why they decided to go ahead with the premiere.
- 12/11/2020
- by Kaleem Aftab
- Variety Film + TV
“About Her,” which world premiered in International Competition this week at the Cairo Film Festival, began life as a short story, which director Islam El Azzazi penned in 2003. In 2017, he started adapting the story for the screen.
“The short story faded, somehow,” he says of the changes he made in the process. “I don’t see what’s happening on-screen as a fantasy; it somehow has its own reality.”
The Berlinale Talents alumni says that, initially, “I was refusing to write a screenplay. At the time, I had two long screenplays that I had spent six years trying to fund. I was trying not to get into that phase again.” So for the next year and a half, he would explain the project as scenes. “I think this helped develop a certain perspective that made the film organic somehow.”
When he got down to writing these scenes up in script format,...
“The short story faded, somehow,” he says of the changes he made in the process. “I don’t see what’s happening on-screen as a fantasy; it somehow has its own reality.”
The Berlinale Talents alumni says that, initially, “I was refusing to write a screenplay. At the time, I had two long screenplays that I had spent six years trying to fund. I was trying not to get into that phase again.” So for the next year and a half, he would explain the project as scenes. “I think this helped develop a certain perspective that made the film organic somehow.”
When he got down to writing these scenes up in script format,...
- 12/9/2020
- by Kaleem Aftab
- Variety Film + TV
The Cairo Film Festival’s Industry Days wrapped Tuesday on a high note, with several Arabic film projects emerging as standouts of its co-production platform.
The informal market component of the rebooted Cairo fest entailed five days of networking, deal-making, and mentoring, and had a greater focus on TV. Attending were such high-level execs as Agc Studios topper Stuart Ford, AMC Networks’ VP of productions Kristin Jones, and Netflix director of international originals Ahmed Sharkawi. There was also a clutch of CAA agents, plenty of European buyers, and producers and financiers from India and China.
They came to mingle with the Middle East industry at a time when the region’s market is increasingly perceived as having potential that can be unlocked despite turbulence in territories such as Lebanon, an Arabic film industry hotbed, where banks have currently blocked money transfers outside the country until unrest subsides.
“We are just...
The informal market component of the rebooted Cairo fest entailed five days of networking, deal-making, and mentoring, and had a greater focus on TV. Attending were such high-level execs as Agc Studios topper Stuart Ford, AMC Networks’ VP of productions Kristin Jones, and Netflix director of international originals Ahmed Sharkawi. There was also a clutch of CAA agents, plenty of European buyers, and producers and financiers from India and China.
They came to mingle with the Middle East industry at a time when the region’s market is increasingly perceived as having potential that can be unlocked despite turbulence in territories such as Lebanon, an Arabic film industry hotbed, where banks have currently blocked money transfers outside the country until unrest subsides.
“We are just...
- 11/27/2019
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Cairo co-production platform metes out $200,000 worth of prizes.
Lebanese director Karim Rahbani has won a place at the Rotterdam Lab next January after his feature project Shameem clinched one of the top prizes at the Cairo Film Connection (Cfc).
The co-production platform, running November 24-26 within the framework of the Cairo International Film Festival (Ciff), awarded 16 prizes worth a combined $200,000.
Shameem revolves around a young Bangladeshi man who travels to Lebanon to work in an industrial laundry.
It will be Rahbani’s debut feature after award-winning shorts Why Thy Spirit and Cargo.
It received the Arab Cinema Center award offering the film’s producer,...
Lebanese director Karim Rahbani has won a place at the Rotterdam Lab next January after his feature project Shameem clinched one of the top prizes at the Cairo Film Connection (Cfc).
The co-production platform, running November 24-26 within the framework of the Cairo International Film Festival (Ciff), awarded 16 prizes worth a combined $200,000.
Shameem revolves around a young Bangladeshi man who travels to Lebanon to work in an industrial laundry.
It will be Rahbani’s debut feature after award-winning shorts Why Thy Spirit and Cargo.
It received the Arab Cinema Center award offering the film’s producer,...
- 11/27/2019
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
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