Alaa Karkouti Serves as Jury Member of the Sunbird Production Competition at the Days of Cinema in Palestine

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The Seventeenth Stop For the Arab Cinema Center in 2017

Alaa Karkouti Serves as Jury Member of the Sunbird Production Competition at the Days of Cinema in Palestine


The Arab Cinema Center kicks off at the Palestine Film Meetings (PFM), held as part of the 4th Days of Cinema in Palestine (October 17-23), represented by Film Analyst Alaa Karkouti, Managing Partner of the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) and CEO of MAD Solutions. Karkouti will also serve as a jury member of the Sunbird Production Competition held as part of the festival that is organized by FilmLab: Palestine.

The Sunbird Production Competition showcases short film projects with a maximum length of 20 minutes film that are going to be set in Palestine or thematically refer to Palestine. Among the awards presented to the winning film project is the MAD Solutions Award that offers Marketing and Distribution services in the Arab world.

At the same time, MAD Solutions is going to screen ten films of its distribution at the Days of Cinema. The films are: Hedi by Mohamed Ben Attia in the Narrative programme, in the Sunbird Shorts II: Ayny by Ahmad Saleh and The Parrot by Darin J. Sallam and Amjad Al Rasheed, in the International Shorts I
programme: Abraham by Ali Kareem Obaid, Ahmad by Ameer Ihsan, Five O'clock by Ayman Al-Shatri, Five Boys and A Wheel by Said Zagha and Nocturne in Black by Jimmy Keyrouz, in the International Shorts II programme: Submarine by Mounia Akl, and in the Documentary programme: Gaza Surf Club
by Philip Gnadt and Mickey Yamine.

Days of Cinema is an annual event, organized by Filmlab every October, and aims to place Palestine on the map of the International film industry and movie landscape, in addition to promoting local and international films across several venues in different cities within Palestine. The first edition of Days of Cinema was launched in 2014 presenting a unique program of renowned international film screenings for adults and children, along with panel discussions, professional film workshops, specialized programs for children, and networking opportunities.

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 sixteen stops at international festivals and markets. The festivals attended are the International Film Festival of 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, Festival del film Locarno, Venice International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Film and Television Careers Connection (FTCC), San Sebastian International Film Festival, Malmö Arab Film Festival and the Cape Town International Film Market & Festival (CTIFMF).