The Arab Cinema Center Attends the Berlin International Film Festival for the 6th Consecutive Year

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Accompanied by 15 of Its Partners

The Arab Cinema Center Attends the Berlin International Film Festival for the 6th Consecutive Year


For the sixth consecutive year, the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) will engage in a wide-range of activities at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) accompanied by 15 of its partners that vary between film organizations and international film festivals. The ACC will mark its sixth year at the Berlinale, which witnessed its first launch in 2015.

The partners who will accompany the ACC to the 2020 Berlinale (in alphabetical order): Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) (Egypt), Cinema 70 (Saudi Arabia), El Gouna Film Festival (Egypt), Eventival (The Czech Republic), Film Clinic (Egypt), Iraqi Cinema (Iraq), Lagoonie Film Production (Egypt), MAD Solutions (Egypt-UAE), Malmö Arab Film Festival (MAFF) (Sweden), Misr International Films (MIF), Rotana Group (Saudi Arabia-Egypt), Rowad Media (Saudi Arabia), The Imaginarium Films (Jordan), The Royal Film Commission-Jordan (RFC) (Jordan), and Tripoli Film Festival (Lebanon).

During the festival, the ACC will release the 13th issue of its Arab Cinema Magazine, which features a section listing the Arab films selected at the 70th Berlinale, and a list of the 19 most important events in the Arab film industry in 2019, as well as an entire section covering everything about the upcoming edition of the Critics’ Awards For Arab Films and its jury committee that brings together 142 film critics from 57 countries.

The Arab Cinema Center selected Chiraz Latiri, former General Director of the Centre National du Cinema et de l'Image (CNCI), to receive the Arab Cinema Personality of The Year award, presented by The Hollywood Reporter. The award is part of the ACC’s strategy of promoting the Arab film industry internationally and supporting Arab filmmakers.
During the festival, three films distributed by the ACC’s partners will screen within the European Film Market (EFM); Blue Elephant: Dark Whispers by director Marwan Hamed, which is distributed worldwide by MAD Solutions and Misr International Films (MIF), Between Heaven and Earth by director Najwa Najjar and Beyond the Raging Sea by director Marco Orsini, which are both distributed by MAD Solutions, in addition to a 25-minute screening featuring a sneak-peak of the Arab world's finest lineup, presented by Rotana Group, owner of the largest library in the Arab world, in cooperation with MAD Solutions.
Organized by MAD Solutions in 2015, the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is 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 markets, stands, and pavilions, networking sessions and one-on-one meetings bringing together 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.