Arab Cinema Center at Cannes Film Festival for the Second Year in a Row

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The Sixth Stop in 2016 with Four New Partners on Board

Arab Cinema Center at Cannes Film Festival for the Second Year in a Row


With 30 partnering film companies and organizations, Arab Cinema Center (ACC) will set off to Cannes Film Festival for the second consecutive year. Organized by MAD Solutions, the Center will take part in the 69th Cannes Film Festival, the sixth stop within the ACC's new strategy during 2016 targeting over 20 film festivals and markets worldwide.

Four new partners have joined Arab Cinema Center at Cannes, including; Festival International du Film Oriental de Genève (FIFOG) (Switzerland), Rotana Media Group (Saudi Arabia), and Iraqi Independent Film Center (IIFC) (Iraq), who have all joined the center at Cannes Film Festival in 2015 as well, in addition to Studio ZAT (Egypt), who partners up with the Center for the first time at Cannes.

The ACC list of partners (in alphabetical order) include: Arab Cinema in Sweden- ACIS (Sweden), Arab Film Festival (USA), Arab Radio and Television Network-ART (Saudi Arabia), Birth Mark Films (Egypt),
Crystal Dog (Egypt and UAE), Film Clinic (Egypt), Iraqi Independent Film Center (IIFC) (Iraq), iProductions (Egypt), MAD Solutions (Egypt & UAE), Malmo Arab Film Festival-MAFF (Sweden), Minaa (Jordan), Movie Pigs (USA), Odeh Films (Palestine), Red Star (UK), Robert Bosch Stiftung (Germany), Rotana Media Group (KSA), Royal Film Commission (Jordan), S Entertainment (Egypt), Salam PROD (Tunisia), Screen Institute Beirut-SIB (Lebanon), Seat 26 (Lebanon), Studio ZAT (Egypt), Support Arab Cinema; powered by Image Nation Abu Dhabi (UAE), Tharwa Productions (UAE), The Friends (Egypt), The Imaginarium Films (Jordan), The International Oriental Film Festival of Geneva (FIFOG) Switzerland, The Producers (Egypt), TV.AE (UAE), and The Zayed University Middle East Film Festival-ZUMEFF (UAE).

ACC is set to continue the activities which commenced in Cannes last year, including seven networking sessions with film experts from distinguished international organizations and festivals, such as; Venice, Berlin, Locarno, Beijing, and Toronto. The Center also welcomed over 5000 film enthusiasts during the festival.

Director Basil Khalil's AVE MARIA, which is promoted by the Center, was screened within the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival. The Center handled the promotion responsibilities for the film which was later nominated for an Academy Award. AVE MARIA also held the record for the most-watched short film at the festival. In addition to that, 141 press releases were published featuring the center's activities in the printed press and on Arab and international online news platforms.

The Center opened the year with intensive activities at the 45th International Film Festival Rotterdam
(IFFR), followed by the 66th Berlinale, the Qumra Doha Film Institute, which was the Center's first Arab stop since its launch in 2015, in addition to Silk Road Film festival in Ireland, and Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART).

Previously, ACC revealed its year-round partnership with Variety magazine as the Center's media partner; in addition to a digital partnership with Festival Scope and a technology sponsorship with
Striim.in to promote ACC's events in 2016. The Center also launched a magazine during Berlinale to announce its partners, as well as the festivals and film markets which will be hosted by the center this year and to shed light on the latest news on the Arab film market.

Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is operating as an international promotional platform for Arab cinema as it provides Arab filmmakers with a professional window to connect with filmmakers from all over the world through a number of events that it organizes and 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 sessions for Arab and foreign filmmakers, welcome parties, meetings with international organizations and festivals, in addition to releasing an ACC guide to be distributed among the Film Market visitors.