Syrian Director Soudade Kaadan's Obscure Wins MAD Solutions Award at Final Cut Venice

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Offering Promotional and Distribution Services Across the Arab World

Syrian Director Soudade Kaadan's Obscure Wins MAD Solutions Award at Final Cut Venice


Syrian Director Soudade Kaadan's film Obscure has won the MAD Solutions award, which is offered by the company under the umbrella of Arab Cinema Center for one of the participating projects in the
Venice Final Cut workshop at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. The winning project is offered promotional and distribution services across the Arab world.

The film project also won an award at the Fribourg International Film Festival. The award comprised of creating a 35mm un-subtitled copy of the film or contributing € 1500 to the DCP version of the film.

Syrian director Soudade Kaadan's film Obscure is a co-production between Syria (Amira Kaadan) and Lebanon (KAF production). The film is about blindness, mainly the blindness of insight, and the complete loss of vision, in reality and in cinema. A journey of research into finding answers to several questions; the questions that took shape and toll during times of war and chaos.

Soudade Kaadan is a Syrian director, born in France. She studied theater criticism in the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Syria and graduated from Saint Joseph University (Université Saint-Joseph - Institut d'études scéniques audiovisuelles et cinématographiques) (IESAV) in Lebanon. She directed and produced documentary films for Aljazeera Documentary Channel, UNDP, UNHCR and UNICEF. Her films have screened at several venues nationally and internationally and have received international awards such as: Martine Filippi award for discovery, the 29th URTI Grand Prix for Author's Documentaries, and the second prize of Muhr Arab Documentary at the Dubai International Film Festival. Currently, she is working on her first feature fiction film.

For the second consecutive year, under the umbrella of ACC, MAD Solutions is offering a special award for one of the participating films in the fourth round of the Venice Final Cut workshop at Venice Film Festival. The award consists of promotional and distribution services for the winning film across the Arab world as part of the company's strategy to support the Arab film industry through the different production stages internationally and within the Arab region and to promote them on the long run. The documentary film Separation by Iraqi director Hakar Abdulqadir won the award last year and the film is now ready to be released in cinemas across the Arab world. The company previously offered similar awards for the winning projects at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, and at the MAFF Market Forum (MMF) at the Malmö Arab Film Festival in Sweden.

The 4th Venice Final Cut Workshop supports films in the post-production stage in Africa, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. The film selections are screened to an audience of producers, distributors and programmers of international film festivals. The workshop concludes with an award ceremony to honor the winning films that will be supported through the post-production phase.

The aim of Venice Final Cut is to develop the role of the Venice International Film Festival to become a bridge that supports independent filmmaking in these countries by providing effective production support and promoting the films on the international market level.

About Arab Cinema Center (ACC)

Organized by MAD Solutions, Arab Cinema Center (ACC) opened the year with intensive activities at the 45th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), followed by the 66th Berlinale, the Qumra Doha Film Institute, 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), the 69th Cannes Film Festival, the 69th Locarno Film Festival, and the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.

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. During Cannes 2016, the Center launched the first issue of the Arab Cinema Magazine, the first English-language Arab publication entirely dedicated to international cinema, which will accompany the Center to shed light on the Arab film industry and the latest up and coming talents. The second issue was launched at the Venice International Film Festival.

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 and networking sessions for Arab and foreign filmmakers, welcome parties, as well as meetings with international organizations and festivals.