Arab Cinema Center Takes Part in Eurasia International Film Festival and Festival del Film Locarno

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Extensive Activities to Promote Arab Cinema on the International Level

Arab Cinema Center Takes Part in Eurasia International Film Festival and Festival del Film Locarno


The Arab Cinema Center (ACC) continues its tour of international film festivals and markets with the aim of promoting the Arab cinema industry internationally. The Center will be launched for the very first time at the 13th Eurasia International Film Festival in Kazakhstan (22-28 July) and will take part in the 70th Festival del film Locarno (2-12 August).

Abdallah Elchami, Managing Partner of MAD Solutions in the GCC; the company which organizes ACC, will represent the center at the Eurasia International Film Festival. Elchami will participate in a panel discussion on Sunday July 23rd at 3:00 pm (GMT +6), within the Eurasia Film Market. The discussion will be titled " Kazakh films abroad: Marketing and Promotion", where Elchami will talk about MAD Solutions' experience in promoting films from the Arab world, the company's strategy, and the results it arrived at.

Elchami will also represent ACC in the closing session of the Market, which will be held on Tuesday, July 25th, focusing on the possible actions that the film industry in the Central Asian region has to take. ACC
will be presented as an example of very important and productive initiatives that can lead to international cooperation. In the same context, issues of Arab Cinema Magazine will be distributed among the festival and market visitors.

The Eurasia Festival will feature 11 films distributed by MAD Solutions in the Eurasia Film Market, including the feature film feature A Mile in My Shoes directed by Saïd Khallaf, My Uncle by Nassim Abassi, and Foreign Body by director Raja Amari, as well as the long documentary Gaza Surf Club
directed by Philip Gnadt and Mickey Yamine, Nany Culture by Paul James Driscoll, and the short films Kindil El Bahr by Damien Ounouri, The Parrot by Amjad Al Rasheed and Darin J. Sallam, One Minute by Dina Nasser, Nocturne in Black by Jimmy Keyrouz, last but not least, the two animated films Ayny by Ahmed Saleh and Karouma by Boubaker Boukhari.

Egyptian Jeanne D'Arc will also compete at the same festival, within the Plaza 6 Program, that is dedicated to featuring films from developing countries, with the attendance of the film's director Iman Kamel who was also selected for the Short Film jury, alongside representatives from MAD Solutions, which distributes the film in the Arab world.

In August, ACC will participate in the 70th Festival del film Locarno, where the Center will be featured in the official catalog of the festival and issues of Arab Cinema Magazine will be distributed during the festival's events.

Film Analyst Alaa Karkuti, Co-founder of Arab Cinema Center and CEO of MAD Solutions, will participate in a panel discussion on Thursday, August 3rd, in the fifth edition of StepIn. The panel will be titled "Global Platforms and Cinema Screenings". This year, SetpIn aims to discuss the growing impact of video-on-demand platforms on cinemas, as this digital revolution affects the challenges of creating and consuming content more than ever before.

The Arab Cinema Center (ACC), organized by MAD Solutions 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. 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 available on ACC's website, allowing users to obtain digital copies of Arab Cinema Magazine, as well as news on ACC's activities, notifications of application dates for grants, festivals and offers from educational and training institutions, updates on Arab films participating in festivals, exclusive news on Arab Cinema LAB, and highlights from ACC partners and their future projects.

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 eight 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, 34th WIPO SCCR in Geneva, Cannes Film Festival, and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.