Arab Cinema Center: Arab Filmmakers' Gatway for Film Co-productions and International Collaborations
Arab Cinema Center: Arab Filmmakers' Gatway for Film Co-productions and International Collaborations
As soon as filmmakers realized the importance of co-productions with different countries around the world, numerous attempts for collaboration with production companies and funding institutions have been conducted. However, the Arab region has suffered through communication troubles between filmmakers and international funding institutions. Amidst all of this, Arab Cinema Center (ACC) emerged as a professional platform for co-production with Arab and international companies and organizations.
The Center, organized by MAD Solutions, kicked off its debut at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015, creating a professional network of Arab and international companies and organizations that contributes to Arab film production and distributes Arab films worldwide. The Center successfully put together 10 Arab production companies, and 250 of the most distinguished filmmakers attended its opening ceremony along with averagely 1500 daily visitors. The Center’s numerous activities successfully merged the Arab and international film markets and presented several Arab film co-production projects. In recognition of the Center’s important role, the ACC received requests from 20 festivals asking for Arab film submissions at their upcoming editions line-up of films.
After the Center’s huge preliminary success, it has now moved on to its second station, taking Arab films to the heart of Cannes Film Festival; one of the largest film markets in the world. The Center’s second edition succeeded in creating an Arab congregation comprising 18 Arab and international companies and organizations whose activities range from production, distribution to support and promotion and advertisement. During the festival, ACC was visited by averagely 5000 people every day. Now, 30 international film festivals are in contact with the Center and are interested in adding Arab films to their upcoming editions, which stands as a testament that Arab cinema has now entered the international industry scene and that the world is increasingly interested in getting to know the Arab culture better after its image has been distorted in Western cinema.
The second ACC witnessed a media partnership with Variety magazine and Festival Scope. As a result of ACC’s work, two Arab production companies based in the UAE and Egypt have been launched. In the same context, MAD Solutions added three new Arab films to its distribution plans, in addition to taking on the distribution of Factory Girl in French cinemas through Ocean Films Distribution, as well as becoming the official and exclusive representative of Arab Cinema in Sweden (ACIS) in the Arab world by selecting and nominating Arab films to be screened in Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden).
Arab Cinema Center is steadily and surely opening new horizons for Arab cinema as it has been confined to the Arab region and has faced many funding difficulties, which deprived the Arab and international audiences from watching many splendid cinematic creations. According to its organizers, the Center’s goal is not only to create a networking platform for filmmakers around the world, but also to support cultural dialogue with the Arab world and get to know the other better. All this can be achieved through a new wave of Arab films hoping to revive an industry that has gradually deteriorated over the past few years.
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