Once Upon a Time in Tripoli and It's a Sad and Beautiful World Win Arab Cinema Center and ART Awards

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Within the Events of the Beirut Cinema Platform (BCP)

Once Upon a Time in Tripoli and It's a Sad and Beautiful World Win Arab Cinema Center and ART Awards


The 4th Beirut Cinema Platform (BCP) has announced the winning film projects of its Fiction Film Projects in Development competition, where the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) and the ART (Arab Radio & Television) presented two awards.

Maher Diab, Creative Director and Co-founder of MAD Solutions and the Arab Cinema Center (ACC), presented the ACC Award to the film project Once Upon a Time in Tripoli - El Bastardiya by director Abdullah El Ghaly and producer Miftah Saeid. The award is an invitation given to the winning project's producer to attend the Venice Production Bridge, held on the sidelines of the Venice International Film Festival. The ART Award, which is a monetary award of $5,000, went to the feature film project It's a Sad and Beautiful World by director Cyril Aris.

Organized by Beirut DC in association with Fondation Liban Cinema, the Beirut Cinema Platform (BCP) is a co-production platform that was launched in 2015. This initiative was designed to bring Arab independent filmmakers and producers together with Arab and international industry professionals to encourage co-productions and partnerships.

Organized by MAD Solutions, the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) celebrates its fifth year since its inception in 2015. A nonprofit organization registered in Amsterdam, the ACC 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 ACC'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's 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.

The Arab Cinema Center announced the launch of the MAD 3ARABI (Arab Flow) in Prague, Czech Republic. The festival aims to introduce the Arab culture and focus on the film and TV industry, flowing Arab entertainment and culture onto European shores, and also providing an extension for Arab filmmakers and content creators in the entertainment industry to reach new shores.